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The Last One

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, the day has finally arrived.  Almost.  Next Tuesday I will finish my service as a full time missionary and will return home to my family who now live in Utah.  This will be the last group email I write, hopefully that doesn't make any of you cry. 

My mission has been quite a wild ride; started in Texas, then to Utah for the MTC, then to Portland to await my visa, then to my original assignment in Ecuador, then home to Maryland because of COVID, then to Anaheim to finish off the last bit, now going home to Utah.  I've also been blessed to serve with 4 different Mission Presidents and their awesome wives and I really have learned so much from each of them.  I know this was all part of God's plan.  For some reason He needed me in all of these places with all of the amazing people I have met, and I can honestly say that I am so grateful my mission tuned out the way it did.  It was MY mission, perfect for me and my needs and it led me to those people who needed to hear the joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ from me. 

I'm really grateful for the experiences I've had with prayer on my mission.  Looking back, it has been the source of countless miracles and conversions and I could list off so many examples.  In Portland we prayed to find someone to baptize before I left, and my friend Moses got baptized 3 days before I headed out to Ecuador.  In my last area in Ecuador we prayed that COVID wouldn't affect the baptisms of the four young Almache cousins, and 30 minutes later we got permission to hold the baptism.  Here in Anaheim I've had many personal experiences with prayer that have helped me grow closer to my Father in Heaven.  My testimony of the power of sincere, earnest prayer has been significantly strengthened. 

I've also come to learn how to let God prevail in my life.  I've really had to turn my will over to Him and let Him guide me.  I love in the Book of Mormon when Jacob says, "Seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from His hand."  I had to take that to heart.  As I've taken the back seat and let Him lead, I've really seen so many blessings and miracles that wouldn't have happened had I tried to do things my own way. 

Another significant lesson is the power of a positive attitude.  The best days of my mission were the days when I chose to be happy, regardless of the circumstances.  It makes such a huge difference.  

I'm really going to miss my mission and all the friends I have made and places I have come to love, but I'm also really excited for this next chapter of my life.  It's going to be awesome to be able to use and apply all the things I have learned out here to all that I do. 

The biggest blessing of my mission is the relationship I have made with my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I studied the word, "Redeemer" this week and it literally means "to win back."  Christ did everything to win our souls back because He loves us so much.  No matter the sins we commit or mistakes we make, He can win us back, He can bring us home. I've come to understand His life and His majesty so much better over the past two years and wow, there is still so much to learn.  I love this gospel, I love the Book of Mormon.  The only reason I know who Christ is, is because of that book.  It has changed my life forever.  It truly is 'the most correct book on earth and a man will grow closer to God by abiding by it's precepts'. 

Thank you everyone for all of the love and support you've shown me over the last two years.  I have felt the power of your prayers and am so grateful for that.  I'm excited to see all of you soon! 

With love, 

Elder Davis Spangler 

-some quality photos of me, that black name tag makes every picture so much better. 

YEAH NEW YEARS

HELLLLLLOOOOO

Wasn't last week just splendid?  Christmas is the best ever and I am sad to see it go.  I feel like Faith Hill and I just want to go out in the snow and sing, "Where are you Christmas?" for the next 362 days until it comes back. 

Our Christmas was pretty low key but it was very enjoyable.  We spent Christmas Eve with some members and ate dinner with them, then we came home and drank egg nog, ate candy, and played games.  We also had a a big mission zoom call with a Christmas program which was a lot of fun.  Christmas day we munched on some rico french toast prepared by Elder Sebresos, then talked to our families.  I love my family.  We ate dinner with the bishop and his family and they're great, it's like a home away from home with them. 

Elder Sebresos and I showed some quality teamwork the other day when we gave one of our fellow missionaries a haircut.  It started out good and I got the sides nice and faded and even, then I got to the top and panicked and didn't know what to do so I passed it over to Elder Sebresos.  He tried for a little bit but the missionary who we were cutting lost hope and just asked for a buzz.  He now looks like a drill sergeant who would make you do 200 pushups for sneezing, it's pretty awesome. 

Our friends are doing well.  Arturo and Emersonn are plugging along, everyone else hasn't answered us. :(

I found a quote that I think really applies to this time of year, as the New Year is often a time to set goals and make plans. Elder Boyd K. Packer said, “Plant your fruit trees. Cultivate them, fertilize them, watch them grow, and enjoy the fruit thereof. If the end comes during the process, so what? Do not deprive yourself of enjoying the fruits of your labors by living in fear of the world’s problems that lie ahead.” I love this perspective. It's like when people say, "the joy is in the journey."  If we live in constant fear of the future, we won't enjoy the now.  It's a good mindset to have going into the new year. 

I am really looking forward to this new year and lots of exciting new adventures.  I'm stoked to continue to serve the Lord throughout next year, this really is the best work there is. 

That's all for this week. Love and miss you all! 

Elder Spangler

YEAH CHRISTMAS

HEYO

How has another week already gone?  Que en el mundo?  Time sure flies when you're a missionary, especially during Christmas time. 

We have been big time blessed by our members this week.  Since we are in quarantine, the bishop set up a calendar to have the members give us food every night, so we have grubbed up.  We got a lot of pasta and a lot of tortillas with the occasional fruit cup.  I love it, this ward is the best.

We've been able to participate in Light the World the last few weeks and it's been so awesome.  I highly recommend it.   Just text the word "light" to 71234 and you'll receive a prompt every day of a little activity you can participate in. 

Our friends are doing well.  It's been rough to get in touch with them which is lame sauce but we're still working hard.  We have a lot of stuff we're going to try this week, hopefully we can teach them all soon. 

We did have a cool miracle of a referral we received and we were able to call her right away and set up a lesson for this week, so we're excited for that. 

I was reading an article about Elder Jeffery R. Holland and I found a cool quote from his wife, Sister Holland.  She said, "Jeff was always a very good athlete, I especially liked to watch him play basketball.  I admired his ability, and besides that, he had cute legs."

 Just kidding. That is a real quote but it's not the one I wanted to share.  I want to share a scripture found in Isaiah 9:6. It's one of my favorite verses about Jesus Christ.  It says, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."  I love how descriptive each name is and how it explains the many roles Christ has.  I think "Wonderful" is my favorite one because Christ really is just wonderful.  Several times in this past week I have been able to reflect on His birth, life and death and I'm just in awe of Him. Christmas is the best time ever.

Welp, that is all for this week.  I hope all of you have the most splendid Christmas and that you remember our Savior, who is the reason for the season. 

Elder Spangler

Crunchy

BUENOS DIAS to my fellow Christmas celebrators, I hope this week has been a splendid one for you.  Although we spent the large majority of our time in the apartment this week, we still found some neat ways to occupy our time. 

We had a Zoom Zone Conference at the beginning of the week and that was just swell.  We got some really good trainings on how to study well and how to help others feel the Christmas spirit.  The Platt's are wonderful mission leaders, I sure enjoy working with them. 

Elder Baird's uncle thought it would be funny to send him 10 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch with 4 gallons of milk, so we have a lot of cereal right now.  We finished the 4 gallons in like 5 days and we still have 8 boxes left. Oh they're also the Costco boxes so each box has 2 bags. Needless to say, the roof if my mouth has taken a beating. 

Elder Baird has a little basketball hoop that we put on the door and we have a little piece of tape on the floor to mark where you have to shoot from.  We have a ball that is barely smaller than the circumference of the rim, so it's pretty hard to make it in.  We were trying to get two in a row and couldn't do it for like 45 minutes, but then out of nowhere I drained 4 in a row.  We went wild, it was so awesome.  I'm already signed to play for Golden State to become the 3rd Splash Bro. 

Elder Sebresos invented the most delicious treat the other day.  It's a piece of Grandma Sycamore's bread, slightly toasted, with cream cheese frosting and homemade strawberry jam. It's like cheesecake. It's so good, you should try it.

Our friends are doing well.  Arturo and Teresa are still looking good for their baptismal date of January 2nd, so we're really excited about that.  Our friend Emersonn is in the process of trying to get an answer of whether or not he should be baptized, so please keep him in your prayers!  A lot of our ward members have tested positive for COVID, so please keep them in your prayers too. 

I spent some time this week studying what it means to be committed and I found a cool quote from Dale Carnegie. He said, "If you are not in the process of becoming the person you want to be, you are automatically engaged in becoming the person you don’t want to be."  I thought that was an interesting perspective and helped me realize what I needed to change in order to be all in. 

With it being so near to Christmas and everything, I know a lot of you are DYING to send me packages and letters, so here is my address: 

The Barkley #123 

2400 East Lincoln Ave

Anaheim CA 92806

Well this email had a lot of nonsense in it but it's a look into what my life is like. I hope you all have a wonderful week and light the world!

Elder Spangler

Yahtzee

HELLO TO ALL OF MY BIGGEST FANS

This week was pretty cool.  I am currently sitting in my car listening to smooth jazz, just so you know. 

So last week we were supposed to be in quarantine the whole week but thanks to the new CDC guidelines, we got out on Thursday.  We were able to visit some friends and be alive and free in the outside world and it was great. Then on Saturday we got a text from our President informing us that all of Southern California was going back into full quarantine/house arrest for the next 3 weeks.  Needless to say we were disappointed to be in the house again, but we have some good ideas on how to use our time.  We are about to have so many Zoom lessons haha. 

Our friends Teresa and Arturo are doing incredible.  We had a lesson on Friday with Teresa and her family in Mexico over Zoom and it was awesome.  We read the story of Christ getting baptized in Matthew 3 and then invited them all to be baptized on January 2nd and they said yes!  Teresa was so excited, she is honestly one of the most prepared people I have ever met.  Arturo is awesome and he is just a hoot.  He says the most random stuff and a lot of his questions are way out in left field.  He also accepted a baptismal date for January 2nd and is looking good! #miracles.  We also had 4 friends who came to church and Arturo even bore his testimony.  It was so awesome. 

Last night we watched the Christmas devotional and decorated our little Christmas tree that we found in a closet in our apartment.  It really is beginning to listen a lot like Christmas.  I love this time of year, it's just so happy. 

We played Yahtzee last night and Elder Baird scored 501 points.  Then we realized we counted it wrong and he actually only got 397.  It was only his second time ever playing and he got 2 Yahtzees and the bonus points.  Sure was neat. 

Well, that's it for this week.  Feliz Navidad!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Spangler

RIO VISTA 4EVER

HOLA EVERYONE

We are coming up on December and I could not be more excited because I LOVE CHRISTMAS, especially as a missionary.  I hope you're all as stoked as I am. 

This week was pretty sweet, even though we were stuck in the house all week.  Haha we finally got out of quarantine last Sunday and then on Monday we came in direct contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID so now we're in a 2 week quarantine.  One week down, one more to go.  We actually had a really good week though, despite being on house arrest. 

So first, we got transfer news.  I am staying in Rio Vista with Elder Baird and Elder Sebresos.  This is my first transfer here in Anaheim where nothing is changing for me.  Rio Vista is also now the area where I have been the longest, 4 transfers, we'll see if I can make it 5.  I love this ward and my companionship so I am really happy to be staying. 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Elder Baird's mom knew we were in quarantine so she Doordashed a full Thanksgiving meal from Marie Callender's.  I made some homemade rolls (thanks for the recipe, Alan) and Elder Sebresos made some pies and we chowed down.  I then got to talk to my family and it was a beautiful day. 

Okay we had a MIRACLE that was honestly so amazing, it still blows my mind.  Early this week we got a referral from Facebook of a woman named Teresa who wanted to learn more about the Bible.  We set up a lesson with her over Zoom for a few days later and were stoked.  30 minutes before the lesson, we got a call from a random number and this man said, "Hi my name is Arturo, Teresa told me about your class that you have tonight, can I join?"  We said, CLARO QUE SI AMIGO so we got them both on the call and talked to them about prophets and man they're both so awesome.  We invited them to watch President Nelson's video on gratitude, which they did, and to come to church.  I was asked to speak on Sunday so I decided to speak on repentance.  Teresa and Arturo were both on the Zoom call and it made me SO HAPPY to see them there.  Teresa was holding up her phone the whole time and we were so confused, like was she recording us?  Well we had a wonderful sacrament meeting and after we texted them both and Teresa said, "that was a beautiful talk on repentance, I video called my family on Mexico and they all watched it too.  Do you think you could call them and teach then too?"  SO COOL, we were so happy.  She sent us their info and we're going to call them later.  I just love the way God works, it's incredible. 

I've listened to a lot of BYU Devotionals and talks this past week and I've found some really good info, learning is cool.  I've also realized just how much I have learned on my mission because Elder Sebresos will ask a lot of questions and I'll be able to respond with a really thorough answer and it kind of surprises me haha.  But yeah, the mission really is such a period of growth. 

A quote from one of those BYU Devotionals really stood out to me this week. It says, "God does not contradict Himself.  He did not create man, and then, as an afterthought, impose upon him a set of arbitrary, irritating, restrictive rules.  He made man free–and then gave him the commandments to keep him free."  All of the commandments we have are in place to keep us safe, to keep us free.  Sometimes we can get a little annoyed by them, but God is all knowing and all loving and knowing that helps us remember why we have commandments.  So keep the commandments :)

That's all folks!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Spangler