Tuesday June 25, 2019

Yooo so limited on time kay we're going to the temple and that's going to eat up all the time we have for pday. Soooo keeping it short. So this past week we had another baptism which was great, her name is Monique Labor. She's 18 and ya she's good. Baptized na. Oh ya and shoot i hit my year mark last Thursday. It was cool kay we had MLC last Thursday so like 11/15 ys from my batch so we got a cool pic outside the temple. As far as the work has been going here it's kinda been slow. We dont really have a whole lot of people progressing right now so we've just been doing a lot of finding. It's been cool though kay Elder Schmutz pretty much called out our mission and told everyone that he thinks we could be doing a lot more. So he challenged all of us to do more street contacts and to really commit to aiming for our standards of excellence and ya it's made a huge different in the work. We're already seeing more blessings in the work that'll hopefully lead to miracles. I also worked in Lutopan this week on exchanges and it was super cool. Lutopan is literal bukid. Like it's literally just mountain. It's a reeeeally cool area but ya kinda forgot to take pictures. I'll be going back next week though for exchanges with some other elders in Lutopan so I'll hopefully get some pics next time.

But ya kana ra,
Elder Shirley

Yooooooooooo tomorrow's the year mark!!!!

Tuesday June 18, 2019 (Wednesday June 19th in the Philippines)

Yaaaaa so this past week we've been very limited on actually doing work because a lot has just been happening. Saturday we baptized Mae Ann (19), Jessa (16), and Joany (11) Pañares. We had to do it in the morning so not a whole lot of people came but it was still really good. They all had really powerful testimonies and it was awesome. 

But ya i also got my 2nd and 3rd injections for the Rabies vaccination and ya lets just say if you're going to get bit, dont let any of your fingers get bitten kay it'll freaking hurt and they'll also stab your legs. So ya those visits ate up a ton of time so that was lame. 

And then yesterday President Schmutz came here to Toledo for a mission tour and ya that was really cool too. Any time he comes to my mission here i can just tell how much he truly loves it here and truly just wants us to take care of all the people he loves. He was a mission president here in Cebu before and he literally knows nearly every single member by name in the whole mission. He can tell you a story about just about everyone here and it's just really inspiring seeing how much he truly does care about every single soul here. 

But ya that was kinda all that happened this past week. We'll hopefully be having another baptism this upcoming weekend so that'll be awesome. Oh and I'll be going to a missionary leadership conference tomorrow so that'll be awesome kay almost all of my batch will be together for our year mark! So ya cool times

Love ya,
Elder Shirley

Elder King -- MTC companion



Elder Clegg- Trainer

Rabies Awareness Month

Tuesday June 11, 2019

I just want to do a shout out and let ya know that it's Rabies awareness month. As District Leader I have to lead by example ya know. So ya I got bit by a cat so that my district could learn that if you get bit by a cat or dog you have to go and get the Rabies injections which suck. So ya don't let animals bite you.

But ya we have 3 people (Mae Ann, Jessa, and Joany Panares) being baptized this week. They're all siblings and they're all insanely smart. They're awesome.

This last week we stared teaching this ex-convict which was cool. He's a massive dude with some pretty cool tats and he just really wants to know how to find the truth. I guess there's a lot of different pastors that would go and visit the prison and he listened to all of them and he was all confused about what was true. So ya he's really cool. His name is Lester. He's awesome. He wants us to visit all of his "brothers deprived of liberty" in jail. I don't know if that'll happen but he's really passionate about trying to find the truth and he really wants others to find the truth as well. I REALLY hope things work out with him. He's the man.

ya,
Elder Shirley














** Just a little note ... Dr. Dad looked up what antibiotics they gave Elder Shirley and what shots- he should be good to go ;) **

from the mission president

PHILIPPINES CEBU MISSION
Temple Complex CJCLDS
Gorordo St. Lahug
6000 Cebu City


June 4, 2019



Dear Brother and Sister Shirley,

You will be pleased to know that your missionary, Elder Spencer David Shirley, has been called as a District Leader in the Toledo Zone. You can be proud of this fine young man. He is working hard and has shown a maturity that makes him worthy of this responsibility.

Being a District Leader requires your son to teach, lead, guide and direct the missionaries in his district. It is an invaluable opportunity for him to learn to build firm relationships and to learn to serve others as he sets the example to his fellow missionaries. I know that he will perform his duties well. Sister Pajaro and I will be praying for his success.

Warmest regards, 

Abenir V. Pajaro
Philippines Cebu Mission

transfers!

Tuesday June 4, 2019

YOOOOOOOOO i'm in toledo. It's weird. I thought I was transferring back to the city (which "technically" it is) but it's not city at all. The best I could do to describe it would be like if you drove that one road in front of Colony high school from the high school to wasilla, that'd be what my area is like. It's actually a lot more sub-urb than anything else. It's cool though. My comp and his trainer whitewashed the area so we're still trying to find members and stuff in the area so ya that's interesting. After just two days as District Leader I already did an interview for someone who wants to be baptized so that was cool. My district is awesome. It's got some really fun missionaries. It's funny kay my district is actually bigger than my last zone. There's 6 companionships. It's a party. Right now in my area we're working to get 3 baptisms for this june 15 so hopefully that'll work out. This'll be Elder Mauricio's first baptism so I'm really excited for him. Elder Mauricio is my new comp, I'm follow-up training him but he's already a really good missionary. He's bisaya daan so he has no problems with the language and he's already really confident in doing the work. It's awesome. I think this'll be a good transfer.

ya there's probably more I can write about but I'll just write next week. Sorry no pics kay i left my bag with my camera in Dumz soooooooo hopefully I can get that back sometime.

Love ya!
Elder Shirley

Baptism & Transfers

Tuesday May 28, 2019

This last week was pretty good. We finally got Gina and Jay-R baptized! It was really cool how excited they were when getting baptized. I could really see how big of a difference the gospel has made in their lives.

I'm transferring! I'm going to Toledo! I'm follow-up training and I'm District Leader now. I forgot the name of my new companion but I think he's filipino. It should be fun though. I heard I have other roommates as well so that'll be cool.

I'm honestly just really exhausted right now so this won't be a super detailed email, but ya I had a lot of cool experiences this past transfer. If you look at all my pics that I just uploaded there's some pics from when a RM came back and visited Zambo, there's pics from a Family home evening, there's pics from when we went on splits and I worked with all the priests, the "marathon" box is for a Sepak Takraw ball (basically it's volleyball but you can't use your hands, don't worry we haven't actually tried playing it), and the baptismal service as well. I honestly love it so much in Zambo, but I think it's for the best that I'm transferring now. Hopefully my next area will be awesome as well but I honestly think Zambo might be my favorite area. It wasn't a very progressing area, there were plenty of people we had a lot of hope for that we had to quit visiting, there was a lot of hard times, but it was the area that I felt like I really became a missionary. I wasn't restricted by not knowing the language, I knew how to do the work, and I had companions willing to work with me to do all we could for the people of Zamboanguita. I only got to see 2 baptisms, but this next transfer they'll be having another 3 baptisms in Zambo and I'm really excited for those people who are progressing to their baptisms and their desire to really come unto Christ. I'll definitely go back there some day, Zamboanguita branch really started to feel like home for me.

But ya probably kana ra para karon. Love ya!
Elder Shirley

Tuesday May 21, 2019

Alright I'll write a small email so that you can't complain but I'll write a better email next week I swear. But ya this last week we had fiesta in zambo so work was kinda limited. Everyone was at home but everyone was also partying so kinda hard to visit people. We had zone con though so that was fun. They just spent the whole zone con talking about smart phones so that was exciting. We also had interviews, basically I have no clue what to expect for transfers so that's fun. We actually have Baptisms happening this week though so that's awesome. But ya probably just that for the week. I'll write more next week.

Love,
Elder Shirley