Pray

I have a lot to say, but I just wanted to say that it was super good to talk to my family I hope they have an amazing week!

This week I wanted to say one thing and it was about the Sunday that we had. I know that od really did bless us that day and it was a Christmas miracle. As you know or do not know we really need males in our church in Alaverdi. Right now we have one male that is coming and is consistent. So this transfer we have been trying to improve that so that we can go from a group to a branch. This week we went to church, but on the way we went and brought a male that just moved to our area. He is super cool and only has been baptized for a year. It feels like God is pouring these blessings upon us. We got to church with him and I was not expecting to have a whole more ton males come to sacrament, but here is when the real miracle happens, one of our investigators came that was a male and one of the old Branch presidents came. I now know that the Lord has a hand in his work. We just were continue to work and it moves forward. Sometimes the blessings do not come, but that is not because we are not worthy of the blessings, but just because God wants to see if we are really going to keep doing it when it is even hard. I am just super grateful for this week and everything that you guys do for me. Never take anything granted because we really have it good in America. I do not thing you guys realize how good you really do have it and thank the Lord every day for the blessings that you have. Do not let a day go by where you do not thank the Lord. He is everything in this life and the least we can do is show him a little gratitude by getting on our knees and showing him that we love him. I learned this last week that if you do not have to desire to pray, than pray until you do have the desire. I know that it can be hard to pray because for a long time I did not do it all. If you are not praying right now, try it.  See if you see a change. Do not think for one second that the Lord will not take you back in a heart beat because He will. I know that He will because He did it with me.  This is my invitation to you this week to pray to the Lord this week for everything that you are grateful for and if you do not know what you are grateful for or flat out don't feel like praying, then start out with asking him if he is there or for the desire to pray. We all can pray and we all can feel the Lord's love in our life we just have to be willing enough to take it from him because he for sure wants to give it to us. I know I kind of went off on this topic, but I just want to encourage you to pray to the Lord and you will feel that He loves you.

I love everything that you do for me and keep smiling because the Lord is truly blessing you. Even when you think he is not He is.

Elder Sproul

Try your best... Really try YOUR best

This week was a really good week. I feel like the missionary work has gotten a whole new mind set for me. 

A lot of people have been struggling with their numbers and I have just been thinking if you want to do 

good in life all you have to do is try. Elder Holland I think said it best, "the best part about this gospel is 

we get credit for trying." When we try, we show the Lord that we are willing to do His work. So when I 

think about people who are not doing the best, maybe they are not really trying their best. This is the 

Lord's work and He wants to help us, but there is no way that He can help us if we are not trying to receive 

His help. I have been reading the teaching of Brigham Young and he said something like this. If we are not 

going to follow through with revelation why would He give it to us. I take this and look at missionary work. 

If we are not trying to find investigators He is not just going to throw them in your lap. Just basically a 

principle for life, if you want to do well in life and have the Lord bless you, then you have to at least try 

to do your best in everything and at that time the Lord will show you miracles in your life. So this week 

evaluate what you have been doing and ask yourself if you really have been trying your best. You and 

the Lord are the only ones who will know so take it up with Him.

Overall this was a good week and I am super happy to be able to talk to my family next week. It was a 

good week due to the fact that I found out how to be happy on the mission and that is just to work. 

I am not saying that I was not happy before and not doing any work before, but it just really hit me 

this week. Other than that nothing to crazy happened this week, except we had 2 investigators come 

to church and they are very interested. I am super happy to see how it goes with them. We just have 

to work on the dad in the family so that he will come to church too. That is what we will be working 

on next week. 

I love you guys so much and have an amazing week! Read your scriptures and pray to Heavenly Father. 

If you do not have the desire to pray, then pray until you have the desire to pray. I promise it will help 

you. I love you.

Elder Sproul

Backdoor Blessings

This week was a week full of miracles, well really just one day that went really well. On Thursday, we had a really good weekly planning and fixed a lot of things that were wrong with our companionship. We talked stuff out that needed to be said and actually changed what we were doing wrong. I think that sometimes as males we do not really say what is on our mind, but one thing that is good about this trio is we do. If we didn't it would just get worse and worse. On Friday, we really saw a ton on miracles. Almost every lesson that we went to had a non member in it, of which we were able to teach. If my mind is correct I think that day we were able to get 5 member presents that day. It was definitely one of the best days that I have had in a while and we totally saw the Lord's hand in everything we did that day. He really does help you in everything you do. Sometimes we don't even see it, so it just made me think about how many times that I have received blessings without even knowing. That was the highlight of my week and now we have to work on getting more people to church. That is the next step now that we have some investigators to teach. 

So I also went on a split with the Zone leaders this week, one thing that I learned from him was how to have better street contacting. He really did do a good job and I was able to learn a lot. Elder Willard is a really good missionary and is in his position for a reason. One thing that was super cool was we had this conversation with this lady on the street and were waking with her and it did not really turn into anything, but right after that we went to one of this members house and there was a lady inside and we were able to pick her up as an investigator. Even though sometimes it does not lead to anything on the street, I think that we need to preach on the street so that we can find other places. We like to call it back door blessings. Sometimes you will not see the blessings in one place, but they really are there, but just not where you are looking. 

This week I feel like I have talked about back door blessings, which are basically blessings that you do not really see, but are there. If we could all see how many back door blessings that we were getting every day we would see a ton more blessings than you really think. In this Christmas season, remember to give thanks for the blessings that you receive. He is showering them down on us and we just have to be ready to receive them. So basically just be grateful for what God has given you and do something nice for someone that does not have a lot. I have seen so many people like that here and it really is sad how good we have it in America. Seriously count your many blessings, because there really are a ton. We have it so nice in America and then I see people complaining, like if you were to see half of the world you would realize that you really do have it pretty well. So this week do something nice for someone and give someone the opportunity to see the back door blessings in there life. I promise you that you will feel the love that Christ has for them and for you. 

This week in my studies I have been studying patience. Something that can help everyone. We always need to turn the other cheek as Jesus would. One scripture that really hit me hard was Alma 34:40-41. It just hit me that if we don't have patience and lash out at someone else, then we really are just like them and are in essence are committing the same sin.

Thank you for everything that you do for me and have an amazing week. I really do feel the blessings from your prayers and am really grateful. I will see you in a couple of weeks. Next week I will let you know what is going on with skype and all of that. We are going to talk about it in district meeting and will know more then. 

Elder Sproul 

Mindset is the key to success!

This week at Zone conference I leaned a lot about mindset and what that means. The one main thing that I learned is that if you think something is not going to happen then it won't. I mean we all know that, but it became real for me this week. One example they brought up was talking on the streets. As you know or maybe you do not we can not knock doors here in Armenia and it is all based on street contacts. So an example that they brought up was talking to people on the street and thinking this person is not going to stop for me, but we still say hello to him. I mean the odds are that nothing is really going to happen. I mean we have a lot more odds of something happening if we think it is going to happen. So that is something I am going to work on is to think that more people will accept the gospel and are ready for it. If I do that, I will find a lot more people because the l am thinking that I can.

This week in Alaverdi was pretty good. Something that was really cool was this experience of when we went to this members house. We called her and planned up with her to be over there around 7 in the evening. When we got there this drunk man was there and was bugging the member. I knew at this point that the Lord had put us there for a reason. He was not doing a ton of harm, but was just being loud and a normal drunk person. However, this member still wanted him out of her house. So we got to talking with this guy and started taking pictures with him. Then after that we were like hey lets go and take pictures out side so that we could get him outside and out of her house. So all of that worked and we were able to ditch this guy outside. The moral of this story is that the Lord puts us in places that we were needed. I was super grateful that we could be in a place that the Lord needed us. The week was a normal week and we had meetings with members and I love being in a trio.

In my studies this week, I learned that we need to be more patient. Patience is one of the Christ's attributes that will help us live with our Heavenly Father again. The scripture that I really liked was Alma 34 verses 40 and 41. These scriptures really helped me out and I want to invite you all the be more patient this week. 

Oh and follow the #lightuptheworld initiative on mormon.org. Look at that and blast social media up. I love you all so much and have an amazing week

Elder sproul

Thanksgiving Week

So this week started out right after I finished writing you guys last week! I start there because it was the day that 

all three of us were sick. We think that it was something we ate, but we are not completely sure what it was that 

we ate. One thing that we do know though is that we all threw up and that we all felt better after we threw up. 

So yeah that was basically our Monday. A lazy day at home just sitting around because we all did not feel good. 

Then it came to Tuesday where I had to give my first district meeting ever. I was nervous that it would not be 

that good, but everything went well. Actually a lot better than I expected it to. I did it on asking questions. 

Sometimes here we get in the mode of just teaching and not making sure to ask enough questions. So that is 

why I wanted to do that. It it important to know what the investigators are thinking and we can not know that 

unless we ask. 

In Alaverdi we had some pretty normal visits and was basically a normal week. One thing that we have been 

focusing on in all of Armenia is finding males. We need to find males so that the church here can grow. That 

has been the problem a lot of places is there are a lot of females and not so many males in the church and we 

need males so that they can run the meetings through the priesthood. One thing that was really cool was that 

we found this guy a couple weeks ago cutting wood outside of his garage. We went over to him and asked 

him if we could help because he is this 68 year old man trying to cut his wood. Surprisingly, he does pretty 

well for himself but we wanted to help. We were teaching this guy and he was about to say his first prayer 

ever. He said these words, " please help me god so that I can live 12 more years and go out peacefully and 

that my family will be safe." I thought it was such a good prayer, but funny too. I mean all he wants in life is 

to live a little longer and go out peacefully. He told us a story that he was going to come to church and he 

did! So there are males to be found in Armenia we just have to go and find them and make the church 

stronger here in Armenia. 

Some other things that happened this week was thanksgiving dinner as a zone. The food was good and we 

actually had a turkey there which I did not think that we would have at all. The interesting thing is that in 

Armenian the word for turkey and chicken smashed together. So I guess when we all eat turkey we are eating 

Indian chicken. So the food was good it just was not the same as being with family and seeing all of you guys. 

This was my first real holiday away from home besides Easter, but this holiday we are just usually all together 

and it just felt different than all the other years. I mean I am in Armenia it is not going to be the same thing, 

but I just missed you guys on that day. 

Other than that I have been really enjoying reading the Book of Mormon in Armenian. As in English there are 

a lot of words that we do not really use when we speak in the Book of Mormon so it is a little harder to 

understand them when I speak with people. With people I can understand basically everything, but the 

Book of Mormon is definitely a lot less. I am understanding more and more though. I like reading the 

Book of Mormon. It is definitely something I want to do for the rest of my life, and reading in Armenian helps 

me learn the language more fully. 

Always remember to read the Book of Mormon it will bless your life in more ways that you know! I love all of 

you and most importantly is God loves you have a great week.

Elder Sproul 

Getting used to the area

We have been taking some time getting used to the area! It is nice finding out where members live and where the less active members life. That is probably the hardest part about going to a new area is that you literally know nothing and are just trusting the previous missionary that was here before. It will all come in time though. It always does. I have learned so much this transfer and how to make things better in an area. If you did not know I am also district leader right now. So tomorrow I will be having my first district meeting. We will see how that goes. 

Another thing that happened this week was we had a member of the 70 come and talk to our mission. His name is Elder Martino. He told us that there are 4 things he has seen members do, that help them to never fall away.

1. Family and personal prayer

2. Family and personal scripture study

3. Family home evening

4. Pay a full tithe 

If we do these things he promised us that we will never fall away from the church. So if you are not doing one of this things, I ask you to start doing them all. If you do. I promise that you will never fall away from the church. It is important to get our kids started out on the foot.  It is amazing how simple it is, but so important.

We have had a ton of travel this week because we had to go to the office this week. It was district conference this week and everyone gathered in Yerevan. Which is about 4 and a half hours from my area. So yeah that was my week. I learned my area and spent a lot of time in the car. 

I know that this church is true and all you have to do is read the book to find out. So read the book and pray about it. YOU will get an answer. I promise! 

Elder Sproul 

So, Transfers Happened

So this week I got transferred to a new area. This new area is still in the same district that I was in before, so I kind of know the area. I know the area because I have been on splits here and met some of the members through that. If you want to look up the area on google the name of the area is Alaverdi. It is a super small area and it one of the smallest areas in Armenia. We have about 60 members in the area and about 25 people come to church every week. One thing that is cool is that I am in a trio so that we can meet the members there. Almost all of the members in Alaverdi are Women, so it has been hard to meet the members there. They made us a trio so that we can meet these people without having to have an extra male present. It makes things so much easier because last transfer I saw the difficulties of that area, but with the trio it is like all of the problems just went away. So yeah for the next 3 months I will be in Alaverdi. 

Okay I want to go into one miracle that happened this week. So yesterday morning Elder Web one of my companions. (my other companion is Elder Ebert). So Elder Web got up in the morning and said that today we are going to find a male that is in his 30s and is married with 2 kids. He also said that he would smoke and drink a little, but would want to quit. So we were going to one of our meeting and we we were talking to this tatik, when this man with 2 little kids is walking up the road. I thought this is him, so I said hello as the other two Elders were talking to the tatik still. We started talking to him and found out that he was married and that he wanted to meet with us again. We still do not know if he smokes or drinks, but he did look like he was in his 30s. He did seem like the person that doesn't do a lot of that stuff, but a little. It is just amazing that if you rely on the Lord it will happen. I did not think much of it when Elder Web said that, but when I saw this man I was like no really? Is this him? Just crazy how the Lord brings miracles to your life. Just rely on the Lord for everything and good things will happen. 

So this week one thing that I learned that I will use for the rest of my life was actually something that I was watching on Lds.org during emails. It was how one question can put life in perspective. So now every time I make a decision, get mad, or want to do something contrary to what you know is right. Think about this one question, would it matter in 1000 years? I just want you to ponder that question and if it would not matter in 1000 years than take it out of your life.

I am super excited for this next transfer and it should go super well. As always pray to our Heavenly Father every day. He is always there to answer our questions. Ask and ye shall receive knock and it shall be opened unto you. I love you guys so much and have an amazing week. If you want to watch that video it is on Lds.org just look for it. 

Elder Sproul 

I learned this week, to make an area better than you got there.

Transfer Week!

So yesterday were transfer calls and this time they did transfers a little bit differently than they usually do. 

They called us and told us whether we are going to change places and needed to pack our bags or we were 

going to stay were we are at. So this Friday, I will be going to Yerevan and at that time I will find out where 

I am going. In other words my area is changing, but I do not know where to yet. 

This week, we had this meeting with the area doctor from Russia! The meeting was super cool because the 

sister that came was psychologist. She told us about one thing that I am actually going to implement when 

I become a parent and on my mission. She told us that one thing that parents do a lot is they say you are 

the best and there is no one better than you or something a long those lines. I know I remember hearing 

that a time or two growing up, whether playing sports or school or whatever the whatever is. I have heard 

that before. She said that instead of saying that, we should praise their efforts. If we praise their efforts 

then they will realize that it was their efforts that brought them there and got them to be that good. At 

that time they will want to work harder and do more work because they have seen the results of their 

efforts. I want to apply this in my missionary work and when I become a parent and I invite all of you to 

do this. Praise peoples' efforts not their ability. I promise that if you do that you will see them getting 

better and doing more work to get better.

Then this week I want to invite you all to listen to a talk by Brad Wilcox. This is probably my favorite talk 

and it really helps me understand why we are on this earth and what we have to do on this earth. I do not 

want to spoil it for you, but just listen to the talk and I promise you will love it. 

I love you guys so much and I know that with out a doubt this gospel is true! Always remember and I know 

I say this a lot, but read your scriptures everyday. Even if it is one verse. From the words of Elder Holland, 

"that is the good thing about this gospel we get credit for trying." I know that we are not perfect and we 

will not be on this earth, but we have to try. When we try the Lord will bless us and do wonders in our life. 

You can listen to that talk too. It is amazing. it is called " Tomorrow the lord will do wonders among you." 

These are two of my favorite talks. Let me know what you think and write your thoughts down as you 

listen to these two talks. I love you so much and have an amazing week!

Elder Sproul 

Brad Wilcox - His Grace is Sufficient

Khash

So this week I had the wonderful opportunity to eat khash for the first time. If you don't know what this is there 

will be some pictures to follow and there are plenty on the internet as well. This is an Armenian dish and they 

make it by taking the cow's hoof and putting it in water for eight 8 hours and then eating it the next morning. 

When they go to eat it they put the broth in a bowl and break up some dried lavash ( basically tortilla) into a 

bowl and then that is it. Oh and then some meat is there to. I would not say that it was the worst thing that I 

have ever eaten, but it definitely was no where close to the best thing that I have eaten. I just had to try it 

because it is a Armenian delicacy. 

We had a branch night this week and I was able to teach my branch how to play scum. They love card games so 

it is nice that I know a ton. I was wondering if you could write all the games that you know and send them to me 

so that I can play them. It was nice to get to know them a little better and just grow as a branch. 

It was a pretty normal week, I am loving my time here. We meet some investigators and taught some members! 

I love all you guys so much. I know I say this a lot, but really always remember to pray to our Father in Heaven. 

Always remember there are 2 things that faith can not do and it can be found in Uchtdorf's talk 4th floor - last 

door. I invite all of you to read or listen to that talk. 

I love all of you and have an amazing week!

Elder Sproul  

 

Winter

So winter has hit Vanadzor in a hurry! This week was super cool. I love being so close to the mountains and 

seeing all the white all over the mountains. Definitely a perk of being in Vanadzor. One of the best areas in 

the mission. I really am blessed to serve here as my first area! 

One thing we did this week was help one of the members move to his new house and prepare for winter. 

His relatives were moving to Russia and said that he could live there for free during this winter while they 

are in Russia. We helped him cut wood so that he can have wood for the winter and not freeze. I felt like 

I was living during Joseph Smith times breaking wood and preparing for the winter! We had an ax and 

were chopping wood and we ended up breaking a ton of wood! It was cool to be able to help someone 

that we love and do something for him that he was not able to do!

In my studies, I have been studying how to endure to the end. In first Nephi it says to keep the 

commandments 23 times. If it says it 23 times in the first Book of The book of Mormon I would say that 

it is pretty important. So if you have a problem with one of the commandments go to the Lord. He is 

always there to help you and wants to help you. Just turn to Him and He will forgive you quickly and easily.

I love you guys so much and hope you have an amazing week! Sorry this email was super short, just know 

that I love you and always remember to turn to the Lord for everything. Think about how much you miss 

me and love hearing my letters. He loves you and wants to hear from you the same! So pray and read to 

find answers to your questions!

Elder Sproul

Elder Gray's Birthday

So this week it was my companion's birthday and we were actually in Aliverdi switching back off of a split that we just went on. So when we went to go back on the bus to go back to Vanadzor. I found out that I had the other elders cell phone in my pocket. So, we had to wait an hour until we got to the next city and go back up to Alaverdi. It was an unfortunate mistake because it wasted about 2 hours of time and it meant that we would not have time to go back to Vanadzor that night from Alaverdi. Alaverdi is about an hour away from Vanadzor normally, but they are fixing the road which will take about 3 years, so we have to go on a longer road which is about 2 hours. So we just had to stay in Alaverdi for Elder Gray's Birthday.  It was fun because we got to hang out with the other Elder. We made him a cake and I made some super good mash potatoes from scratch. Definitely something that I will make when I get home and it is super easy. 

We have been doing a lot of work in villages these past few weeks. One cool experience is when we were going out to a village we didn't have a male to come with us. In Armenia that is something that you need to always try and do because most of the members are sisters. As elders it is a rule that is we are going to see only sisters we need to bring another male with us. So we ended up just going to the village without a member present and were planning on seeing what happens. So when we got there one of the members was picking her potatoes and it was amazing. She just kept on saying "mernem qez" and "astvats ugharkel e dzez", which means that I die to you and God sent you. It was amazing that we were able to help her because we were picking for about an hour and half and we cut the work in half. God works in mysterious ways and it always blessing us. 

In my studies this week I have been reading out of the Bible still and to be honest it is getting a little difficult to read these parts. Not to say that anything is wrong with the Bible, but I am just trying to think why this part is in there. I am at the part where it is talking about all the laws that God gave to Moses and Aaron. It is talking about what they can and can't eat, What to do if there is a leper, and so on. So if any of you have some insight I would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you for everything you do for me always remember that God is just a prayer away and wants to bless us. We just need to close that umbrella and feel of the blessings that He is poring down upon us. I love you so much and have an amazing week!

Elder Sproul  

Week of Spaghetti

So this week was the week that I think that I did my favorite service that I have ever done! We ended up 

making spaghetti for this person in our branch. She made all of the dough and it was a ton of work to 

get all the spaghetti strings all hung up so that it could dry so that it could be cooked. It started out 

with rolling then cutting and then running to go and hang it up. All the strings that you see in the 

picture are ones that we hung up so that she could have that spaghetti for the whole winter. 

We also started going out to a village called Spitak and apparently there has been some work done it the 

past. We went out with a member of our ward that knew everyone in the village and was just showing us 

all the people that lived in the village.  It seemed that almost all of them turned into investigators. It really 

goes to show that if you receive contacts then that is when they will become investigators. So when we 

went out there the work went really well and our branch president wants to start bringing the sacrament 

out there. He knows that it will be hard for them to come in to the city so that is why he wants to do that. 

I mean the that is the whole reason we go to church. His end goal would be to start a group out there. 

It would be so amazing, but we just have to find a male that can run the group there. 

In my studies and watching conference I really thought about the importance of repentance and what it 

means to repent. We just need to make sure that we are going through the proper steps of repentance 

and in the end we will meet our maker and be prepared for that day. The steps of repentance are...

1.  recognize it is a sin

2. Fell bad for that sin or sorrow

3. We must forsake our sin or stop the bad thing

4. Confess our sin to god through prayer 

5. Make restitution or make up for the wrong doing

6. Forgive others 

7. Promise to obey the commandments again

If we do these things we will make it to the celestial kingdom. No matter how many times we mess up 

He will always forgive us. Even if it is the same sin. Just always go through these steps. I ask you if there 

is something that you have not repented for talk to someone, you will feel better. Alma 5 is a good 

chapter on this, you should read that. 

I love you guys so much. I know that this church is true and remember to always read the Book of Mormon. 

There were so many talks this last week about how if we read it we will gain a testimony. Try it out and see 

for yourself. I have done it and know that it is true. Have an amazing week. I love you and keep you in my 

prayers as always!

Elder Sproul