HOLA FROM VENTURA CALIFORNIA!

Well there is a lot that I want to say! Too bad I only have an hour! but here we go... 

I got to the Mission on Monday,  I had dinner at the Mission Presidents house, President Felix, and we had a ton of connections! Monday night I slept at a member's house. Tuesday we had breakfast at the Mission president's house again and then we went off to transfer meeting! So my first Companion's name is Elder Davidson. He is from American Fork Utah and he is awesome! Glad that me and my first comp could be such good friends, it's a lot easier to focus on the work when you get along with your companion! We have 2 other companionship in our district, Elder Sorenson and Elder Barlow, Hermana Winn and Hermana Brown. The whole district is killer and they are all huge examples to me. Sadly almost every lesson we have I always look like a deer in the headlights because I still don't know any spanish, but it'll come, Poco a Poco. We have visited a lot of people and I am still trying to remember all of their names. But I have been kept busy tracting and visiting non-members and less actives. It is really fun to get to know all of these people. Even if i can't understand them most the time. The Spanish I can speak is pretty much limited to bearing my testimony and simple sentences, but I get by. The mission has been really fun though despite my lack of Spanish. I attended a baptism on Saturday, it was the other elders.  I have had amazing food from the members, and I have walked a lot and biked a lot as well! Sadly I forgot my camera, I would share some sweet pictures that I have but I guess that will have to wait till next week. And I am at emails at about 11:30-12:30 because that is our scheduled time at the family history center. AAAAAAAAANNNNDDD yeah... This is my first email out in the field so it might be a little lacking. But if anyone wants to send me a letter send it to this address...

2415 Madera Circle, Unit 55

Port Hueneme CA 93041

Love you all! And Happy birthday yesterday Joshie!!

Super Sweet view of Ventura California - This was taken on my first day.

START SERVING

September 23, 2014

Elder Ward with President and Sister Felix

Hola Familia!

Right now I am in the mission!! Exciting Right!?   I am currently in the Stake House for an orientation with all the new missionaries.  Last night I stayed with Brother & Sister Overton, they were so nice to let me sleep there!  I slept so well because of the crazy travel day I had yesterday!  So my P-Day is on Monday obviously and I will then tell you the area I'm serving in, my comp and where I live.  All the good stuff! Sorry this letter has to be brief.  Another thing is you need to send mail to my address.  I'll give that to you on Monday.  I seriously love it here already!  The weather is perfect and I can't wait to get started and start serving!!

Love you all so much!!!

Elder Ward

Elder and Sister McIntosh were at the picnic area waiting for
our arrival as they had picked up lunch for us.

The missionaries are given an experience to remember upon 
arriving in the mission. President Felix is talking about 
committment and having "both feet in." 

At the mission home for dinner

Getting more instruction from President Felix and the assistants

CALIFORNIA VENTURA MISSION

Dear Brother and Sister Ward,

Thank you for sending Elder Spencer Craig Ward  to the California Ventura Mission.  He  arrived today smiling and in good health. 

A blog has been created for you to view periodically.  We hope you will enjoy finding your missionary.  The blog is:  thecaliforniaventuramission.blogspot.com 

You may expect a letter from your missionary soon, along with a photograph of him  with Sister Felix and me.

We welcome him  into the Lord's service and thank you again for sending such a valiant missionary.

Sincerely, 

Dell C. Felix President, California Ventura Mission

TRAVEL PLANS

Hola,

Just received my travel plans last night, I have special permission to email you about them. I am serving in the California Ventura mission until I receive my visa, my plane leaves SLC at 6:00a on Monday so I'm leaving the MTC at about 2:30a.  I am taking trax to the airport. My guess is that I will probably be able to call you around 4:00a or something.  Love you so much!! 

Elder Ward

My district guessing our destinations

MTC - WEEK 5

September 17, 2014

OK! I’ve gots lots of stuff to tell ya! The main thing is that I am not going to Argentina right off the bat. I did not receive with my visa and I am going to receive my temporary assignment on this Thursday or Friday. I was super bummed when i first found out but now I'm pretty excited! I mean who gets to say that they served in TWO mission areas during their mission?? Yeah not too many, but I will still be in the states for sure which will be good, I will be able to still receive packages and mail a lot faster. Other things that have happened was one thing that was super funny is that the rest of the district is across the hall from us and they ran out of toilet paper and they came over to our apartment and stole our last role, and then we decided that we had to settle this like men. We played a game of rock paper scissors to see who would win the last roll. I obviously won and my companions were so excited, it was actually extremely intense and epic!!

We also were privileged to listen to Richard G. Scott talk to us on the Tuesday night devotional and it was AMAZING!!! He talked about just simply prayer, but the talk was so powerful because you could tell by the way he talked he had a extreme testimony about prayer. I was probably about 20 feet away from him which was cool.

One of my ties broke (the little strap on the back that holds the small part of the tie in place) and I totally sewed it back together! I was proud of myself because that was the first time I have ever sewn anything in my life, and I did a pretty good job I must say so myself!

The only time I needed to get into my ARG bag was to get out my umbrella, but other than that it was a FLAWLESS packing job! Love you so much mom! and I probably won't be able to email for 2 weeks because I will miss the field email day because I will traveling on Monday or Tuesday but I will be able to in 2 weeks on Monday! love you so much mom!!

On our shuttle bus

Suckers from mom

Elder Alexander

My district at the MTC map

MTC - WEEK 4

September 10, 2014

HOLA

Ok so this week some stuff happened. I dreamed that my best friend was a crocodile this week and that we both had light sabers and that we would fight a sith and do way cool back flips and stuff, pretty cool I guess. We knew a general authority was coming to one of our devotionals because there was a bunch of high security. He is a member of the Seventy, and his talk was AMAZING! Elder Motzkus left this Monday and I am super excited for him to be in the field serving the people of Argentina, can't wait to do that in less then 2 weeks!!! Since my mom has sent so many bagels I have to have my whole building over to my apartment to eat them all so that they can be gone before the next wave of bagels comes in! She is that sweetest person ever and I love her so much! There was an elders birthday this Friday that we celebrated and i have 2 new investigators, Javier and Adrian! 

Ok and YES of course I love the calender! there is so much stuff that happens in one week it's hard to remember all of the things I need to write about! and I love the rings gramma shields gave me too. HAPPY BIRTHDAY this last monday! I'm glad you got my letter! I was afraid it wasn't going to get to you on time for your b-day! I'm so glad that I have the bestest mom ever that cares about me so much! thanks for all of the goodies you have been sending! and anything else you will send! I love you so much and hope that your birthday was awesome! Glad to hear about the fam again! Tell the fam I love them so much!! see ya next week!

Elder Ward

Our Zone

Our fridge of goodies

MTC - WEEK 3

September 3, 2014

Hola!

 This week has been very fun! I've started to get used to the MTC life and of the new changes I've had to make. I am super excited because John - I mean Elder Nelson is here at the MTC and it's so fun to be able to have Elder Motzkus and Elder Nelson here! It has been such a blessing to have my friends engaging into this work! This week the other elders got locked out of their apartment, we have gotten 2 new investigators, and I still am not fluent in Spanish, haha but it will Eventually come... Hopefully

It's good to hear about the family! Glad everyone is having fun and enjoying life! And tell Dad and Erin that I have loved the packages and so have all of the people in my district, getting bagels from Elder Wards mom is their most favorite thing ever, and they all say thank you so much!!! I hope Nate hasn't crashed the jeep yet!!! haha Just kidding, I'm sure he's doing fine. And tell Joshie to keep holding on! I am so proud of him that he got to the championship! Well I love you and the whole fam so much!!! Talk to ya next week!

Elder Ward

HOLA MAMASITA - WEEK 2

August 27, 2014

I saw John today!! I was waiting at the bus stop to take me back to the West campus after the temple and I saw his car drive by! I only got to talk to him for like 5 seconds, but I will definitely be able to talk to him on Sunday,  The Sunday night devotionals are attended by the whole MTC , so that is where I can see everyone, i.e. Henry, Bryan, etc.
But everyone in the district thinks you are the best family in the whole world because of how much food  you send me!  I have shared all of it with the district except for the tapioca and the raisins. Those are precious commodities.

Glad everyone survived the first couple of days of school.  And yes I got the bagels and those were everyone's favorite, they were gone so fast because rumor spread around to other districts I had them and they all came and ate them,  it was so funny. I am emailing late today because my district decided to do laundry first instead of emails today, so sorry if you flipped out that I didn't email between 2:00-3:00p like I said I would.   Now we have 8 in our district.  One of the Hermanas had to go home because of anxiety.  Nothing much else has happened here, we found out that our investigator we had is actually a teacher at the MTC.  That shouldn't have been surprising, but he was a really good actor.  I think we meet a new investigator tonight as well and I think his name is supposed to be Javier.  I'm so glad I have my companions because I am not good at using Spanish in the lessons.  It's just going to take time but at the moment it is frustrating to not be able to say what I want to say and know that it is true.  I guess I'm just going to have to work super hard to be able to convey my message.  Hopefully I can learn this language fast!  But I know I will if I keep being patient and asking the Lord for his help.  I am going to need as much help as I can get if I want to learn anything on a mission.  Well love ya momma!  Tell the rest of the fam I love them too and that I miss them!

Elder Ward

Elder Christensen & Elder Motzkus

Elder Motzkus & Elder Nelson

HOLA MADRE Y MI FAMILIA - MTC WEEK 1

August 16, 2014
My P-Day isn't until Wednesday so hopefully you guys get this before then.  I wanted to fill you in about everything that has been going on here at the MTC.  I am staying at the MTC West campus.  My companion's name is Elders Donnelly and he is from Alabama.  We had four elders in our room but now we are down to three.  So now I am in a trio with Elder Blake, Elder Donnelly and myself.  There are 9 people in our district -  me, Elders Donnelly, Blake,  Ledbetter, Bunkall, Alexander, Rawlins. Hermanas Creager & McDougal.
I miss you guys so much everyday I am here but then I think about what I am doing here and who I am trying to be more like.  Yes it is hard and I still have no idea about Spanish and how to start to even learn it, but I have learned that I just need to try my best and the Lord will help me with the rest.  Sadly I don't think I have really applied that to my actions but hopefully I will soon because it is really hard to do much of anything here without the Lord's help.  Especially when I think about everything I left behind.
I love you all so much and hope you are all doing as well as can be.

Elder Spencer Craig Ward

August 20, 2014

Ok so today is my official P-Day and I get one hour to be on the computer.  I wish I would have brought my journal to the computer so I could remember everything that has happened in the MTC. Ok so the normal schedule for me is this.

Sunday
wake up, eat, sacrament service, lunch, class time and then a devotional in the night.

Monday (Regular Day), Thursday, Friday, Saturday
wake up, eat, classroom, lunch, classroom, dinner, classroom, sleep

Usually during one of the classroom times we teach an investigator.  At the moment, my trio (Elders Donnelly and Blake and myself) are teaching an investigator by the name of Miquel Angel.  I'm not sure if these investigators are fake or not, but I have a hunch they are fake.  But I am still dedicating time to plan lessons for him and I pray everyday that I might say something to him that will help him to feel the spirit, and that is really hard because he is seriously stubborn.

Tuesday
everything is the same as Monday, except for that after dinner we have another devotional and those are at the main MTC campus

Wednesday (P-Day)
wake up at 5:30, do a service project, go to the temple, eat lunch, write emails, do laundry, dinner, then classroom

I can't wait for the calender to come.  It's going to be so awesome to look at that and count all the days I am serving the Lord.  The language is hard.  I can still barely speak it but it is coming.  I could comfortably say a simple prayer and testimony on the second day, but the grammar is coming slow.
The first couple of days are so hard, it's hard to adjust to this lifestyle but I'm sure that in another week or two I will never want to leave.  I love you all!  Talk to ya in a week!

Elder Ward

My humble abode

My Desk

My district and teacher