I've been here 2 months

It is really is crazy how fast this time has been flying. I mean it feels like just yesterday that I said goodbye 

to all of you and I was starting my mission. I know that everyone said that it will go by quickly, but I never 

knew that it would be going this quickly. 

This week we found out that 4 of our investigators don't have a marriage license. So basically 2 families 

that we have been teaching. It is a big problem here in Armenia because they don't see the point in 

getting a license. I mean they just think of it as a piece of paper. For one of them it is really tough 

because he is lying and saying that his "wife" is living alone and he is working in Russia so she can 

receive welfare from the government. It is just hard because he doesn't want to get the marriage 

license and lose out on that money each month. Without that he can't get this special milk for his 

kid which she needs to live. We have just been trying to help him realize that he needs to trust the 

Lord and everything will turn out okay. Our other one said that she will get a license so it is not really 

a big problem there, but she thought is was a lot more money than it actually was. We had to go to 

this government building to check it out for her. Everything was good when we went and it is just a 

1000 dram for her to get married. So cheap, 2 dollars

This last week we had an auditor come and he took us out for steaks and ice cream at this restaurant 

in the city and it was so good. Elder Johnson said that it was his first time having a steak since he has 

been here which is 20 months so he was loving being able to eat that again.

I am loving being able to serve a mission in Armenia. I feel blessed to be called here and the language 

is coming. It is hard, but I can definitely understand a lot more than 2 months ago. Little by little. Right

now I can understand broadly what is going on and I can teach on most topics. There are just always 

words that I don't understand, just have to keep learning and it will come. Through Christ we can do 

all things.

I love you all and this week I started to study up a little bit on the apostasy and it is really cool to get to 

know what really happened. There was these two emperors or kings I don't remember. Their names were 

Nero and Domation. Who just set out to kill all Christians and that is why they were all killed. It wasn't 

until Constantine came and stopped the killing of the Christians stopped. Keep studying everyday and 

saying your prayers. It really is interesting what we can figure out.

Elder Sproul 

Oh yeah and we did service in a park cleaning it for the Vanadzor people. I don't know that I have told 

you about that yet.

50/50 teaching

This whole time while I have been on my mission, I don't think I have had one lesson where it has been
actually 50/50 teaching. Not because I am afraid to speak or anything, but just because I cant always
understand what is going on. I understand generally what is going on, but I still don't know everything
that is happening. What was cool was I got to go on a split with Elder Wells, who came out to the
mission with me. It was cool because it forced me to actually speak. My speaking was very simple,
but we taught everything clearly and they understood it and it was super cool to actually be able
to teach 50/50. 

This week was a was like the others. except there is this one story that I want to share. We were trying
to meet with our investigator and we went out there on time and were ready to meet him with a
member with us. It was going to be good, but this is where the funny part comes in. My companion,
Elder Johnson was trying to figure out where he lived and called the Member Vanik, instead of the
investigator Vanik. We were a little confused when we had to go back to the city after going all the
way out to where our investigator lived. We got to this guy's house, the member Vanik. He has not
been to church since he was baptized. We meet with him and it turns out that he is blind and doesn't
really know how to pray. I don't know how he got baptized, but he did. It would be really interesting
to hear his story, but we just met with him a little and read the Book of Mormon with him because he
can't read, obviously. It was a good meeting, but when we asked him to pray he had forgotten how.
I am glad the Lord put us there because not knowing how to pray would be the worst. We are blessed
by knowing how to, but I couldn't imagine not knowing how, it is one of our foundations.

Then on Friday we go and play soccer with the young single adults and the youth. So we went out to
play and we got to play against these Armenians that were already there. It was so fun and we won
10-4. The Armenians tend to think that they can do it on their own and don't work as a team. I think
that is why we won. Individually they are better than most of us, but they just didn't work as a team. 

Other than that our investigators are doing well. We found 13 new investigators this week, which is
the most that I have ever had. It is amazing the things that can happen if you set your mind to it and
rely on the Lord. That is probably what I learned this week. If you ask the Lord to help you, he really
will. I have been asking him to help us with that and then what do you know more people were more
willing to listen. They didn't all come to church and we haven't meet with all of them again. but little
by little. It is hard because we have other investigators we meet with regularly, so we just have to find
a balance. 

I am loving my mission. I love you all and have a good week. Always pray and always ask the Lord for
help he will help you. 

Elder Sproul

We went to this random ping-pong place that is why those pictures are there. It was fun, but kind of run
down.

I am proud to be an American

We started this week off by celebrating our countries independence! It was cool being able to think about
our country and see how good that we have it in America! We really are blessed! Most of the elders here
are from the US so we celebrated in the best we could. We went up to the mountains and cooked some
BBQ and played some ultimate Frisbee. It actually felt like we were in America for the few hours while
we were there, but then back to missionary work. It was fun doing those things, but you have to realize
what is really important and why we serve missions. 

We had an amazing lesson with one of our investigators. He has been struggling because he doesn't have
money for food or to pay his bills. So when we went over there this week he didn't even have lights. So we
decided to teach him on trusting the Lord and see if he is really trusting the Lord. He was really worked up
in the beginning and didn't know why his life was this way and just wanted the church to fix his problems
for him. But, as soon as we started teaching him and invited the spirit there, he was just quiet and listened.
I think that was the moment that he realized that he wasn't really totally trusting in the Lord and needed
to do better in that aspect. I shared the example of lets say the rain is a blessing and you have an umbrella
up. You can not receive those blessings because we are not asking for it and have an umbrella blocking it.
Even though he is still pouring down those blessings. We just need to ask him so the umbrella will be taken
away and the blessings can come pouring down on us. 

It was a pretty normal week here in Armenia we worked hard found some cool people we are literally
talking to everyone, because there are just so many people on the street. It is way different than America
where everyone is in cars. Here everyone uses public transport. 

This week I have really been focusing on how I can receive answers to my prayers. I am finally realizing
how I can do that and it is just by asking specific questions and being willing to do what ever the answer
is. If we are not willing why would he want to answer us?

I love all of you guys and have an amazing week!

Elder Sproul

One of the pictures is a bathroom in a village. I dred the way I have to go number 2 in that thing

My first baptism!

So this week I want to start off by saying happy birthday to my brother Cameron. I hope that is was a good day for him and remind him that he only has one more year until he is half way to 50.

This week I would say was a really good week. In the beginning of the week we had to say goodbye to our mission president and say hello to our new mission president Elder Bostrom. We had a meeting with him and he is so amazing. He really is what Armenia need right now. He worked as an accountant and with the problems Armenia has been having before the De-staking it is perfect. So apparently they lost their stake because they were mishandling the money. Not everyone was stealing, but some were. I think that a lot of them just were not trained properly. It is like when the church started in Armerica there were some bumps in the road and we just have to get over them and move forward. But our new mission president is super cool and you can tell that he has a super strong spirit. When I was talking with him and getting to know him a little bit, he gave me the assignment of finding out what Handcart family I am from and seeing that I am on a misison and cant really do that, can you do it for me mom? 

Then later on in the week I had my first baptism. We have been working with her for 3 weeks now and she is just so amazing. She didnt really have very many problems and just accepted all of the invitations that we gave her. You can say that she was a golden investigator. The baptism was super cool. All of the missionaries in my area came and it is just really amazing being able to help someone make that step to be able to live with our Heavenly Father again. I wish I could send you pictures, but I am not allowed to on this mission. I think I might get a flash drive and put a bunch on there to send home so you can look at all my pictures. 

This week I started reading the Book of Mormon again this time I am reading it all with the idea of looking for references of enduring to the end and marking it on things we need to do to endure to the end. I am really liking reading it this way and hope by the end of my mission I will have 10 book of mormons on different questions I have. Next I am thinking about doing how to increase our gratitude? I know dad will like that. 

I love you all. Keep reading the Book of Mormon everyday and pray about it. God will answer if we do our part and show that we want an answer for what we are asking. 

Elder Sproul 

Oh yeah one thing that I forgot to say this week is we were doing service for a member in our Branch and we were moving these board to make space and on every board were a ton of ants. We were on an ant hill and still had to move all of those boards that is the picture that I sent. If you zoom in you can see them all.