Elder Spangler in Ecuador: What's up Portland?

Hey everybody!!

Man, this week has been absolutely crazy. Let's get to it.

So first off, my p-day is now on Monday, but we went to the temple today so we had p-day today. But for future reference, my p-day is Monday.

Man I don't even know where to start, so much has happened.

So on Tuesday at the MTC we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Rasband. He talked about the Rome Temple and the importance of temple work. It was super awesome and I was able to still be there to listen to it. I would encourage all of you to go watch the videos on ChurchofJesusChrist.org about the Rome Temple. They're super informative and would be awesome resources to share with people.

Wednesday was my final day of the MTC. I dropped Elder Tall off at the travel office which was kinda sad but it's all good because I'll probably see him in Ecuador. I left at 10 after saying bye to all my pals in the zone, I'm gonna miss those guys. But yeah, I took a bus to a train station, took a train to another bus station, then took another bus to the airport. It was about 2 hours of travel time, not the most fun. But yeah plane ride, got to the Portland airport and we were met by President Bullen and his wife, and the AP's. We drove to a church building and did a little bit of orientation stuff and then met our trainers. I am with Elder Marcum from Layton, Utah, and we're serving in the Canyon Road YSA Ward! Elder Marcum is a solid missionary and we get along well. The YSA is super fun, I'll share more about that later.

Portland is WHACK. I have never seen so many homeless people before which is crazy because there's a ton in CA. Anytime Elder Marcum and I see something super weird we just laugh and say, "What's up Portland?" But I love it here, it's awesome.

Alright I have so much I could share but I don't know how much time I have so I'll just pick a couple of my favorite experiences.

So here in the Oregon Portland Mission, it is a tradition to hand out a Book of Mormon in your first 48 hours as a missionary. Elder Marcum and I were pumped for this so we went out on Thursday ready to go spread the word and pass out the Book of Mormon. However, our problem was that our area book was completely blank. Like we had no referrals, no recent converts, no previously contacted people. So what we had to do was just look up apartment complexes on Google Maps and then decide which doors to knock. We did that for about 4 hours and we got no one. Literally everyone shot us down so quick and we hardly had any chance to talk with anyone. The rejection is a little rough but I actually just laugh it off. It's funny how blunt some people are with us and I'm just like "alright man your loss." But yeah, we had been looking all day long and it was 8:30 and we had about 45 minutes to get back to our apartment. We decided to try one more complex and we parked the car and saw this girl smoking on her balcony. Elder Marcum, being the STUD missionary that he is said, "Hey, we're missionaries in the area just wanting to get to know people and share a message about Jesus Christ. Could we come share a message with you?" And she just said "sure, I'm in room E202. That's why you TALK TO EVERYONE. So we went up and walked it and the first things I noticed were all the bongs and pipes and hookahs sitting on the kitchen counter and I was like "oh sweet this is prime!!" But yeah we started just talking with her (her name is taylor) and getting to know her and then started asking about her religious background. She said she had faith in God and stuff like that then out of nowhere she asked, "do you guys have any extra books or anything?" In my head I was like "UM HECK YEAH I DO!" So I passed her a Book of Mormon and we invited her to read it and she said she would! When we went back a few days later to talk with her, she was at work but her friend answered the door and we talked with him and then set up a return appointment with him and Taylor this week! It was a super awesome experience and just that little chance to share the gospel made me so happy.

Okay one more experience. Elder Marcum is a Spanish speaking missionary but he has served most of his mission in English. I'm fresh out of the MTC so my Spanish is pretty limited too. Yesterday as we were finding people to reach, we went to this complex and knocked on a door. A lady answered and we greeted her in English and she said "no hablo ingles." And in my head I was like "oh SICK a Spanish contact, my first one." Then elder Marcum and her started having a conversation and I was like "huh I thought she spoke Spanish." As I was trying to translate in my head, Elder Marcum looked at me kinda telling me to respond so I just whipped out a quick testimony of Jesus and our message, then he took back over. But we have a return appointment with her too so I'm excited about that! All I know is that I really gotta work with my Spanish before I go to Ecuador or I'll get wrecked out there.

Anyways, I could write more but I have a lot of stuff to do in not a ton of time so I'll end here. Thank you to everyone who sends me emails! It's going to be harder for me to respond to everyone now but I'll try my best. Please continue to email me, hearing from people really does give me a good boost and I love it.

I love and miss you all!