PRAYER IS REAL

Hello, everyone!  This week was insane.  I saw so many answers to prayers and miracles, it was amazing. 

First, we finally got Derek and Hailey to come to church!  We've been trying for a while and they came this week after we called them out for always saying "our alarm went off late so we missed it." Haha it worked, because they were there.  Derek said this was the first time he's been at our church that he understood everything and it all made sense.  Hailey was awesome too, she was whippin' out scriptures and conference talks for him to read to help explain stuff.  It just made me so happy to have them there with us, it was great. 

We got more information about that guy (Moses) who was from Eugene who is almost ready to be baptized.  Elders Lui and Marcum actually met with him, but I was on an exchange so I didn't get to. I'll share more about the exchange later.  But back to Moses, Marcum said "that guy is the most prepared for the gospel of anyone I have ever met."  They said he was just so cool and so ready and excited to be baptized, it's awesome.  I remembered yesterday that I had prayed and told Heavenly Father that I wasn't going to leave Portland without baptizing someone, and I would do all I could to make that happen.  It was a rough last transfer because we didn't find anyone solid to teach, and I thought my prayer had gone unanswered.  But today during my studies, I realized that Heavenly Father had held up his end of the bargain because I had worked hard and been obedient. I know Heavenly Father does answer our prayers, we just have to show some faith and put in a little bit of work. 

So like I said, I was on an exchange this week.  I was with one of our zone leaders, Elder Bond.  He's from Queen Creek, Arizona and he's a really cool guy and a great missionary.  We had a really cool experience with a less active member. His name is Ben and he's been addicted to meth for about 5 years and is living on the streets.  A member in the ward downtown saw him at Taco Bell and bought him lunch, and called the missionaries in the ward and had them come meet up with him.  Ben is 19, so he's YSA age. The missionaries in the downtown ward decided to have us "coincidentally" run into them during their lesson and sit in on it.  It was a really good lesson and we talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how He can help us overcome trials. At the end of the lesson, Elder Montague asked him if he wanted a priesthood blessing, and Ben said "I've been waiting for you to ask that, I do really want one."  We walked back to the church building and there were 10 missionaries there, all who had just finished lessons downtown.  All 10 of us missionaries were able to stand in on the blessing and it was one of the most powerful blessings I have ever heard. The spirit was so strong and Ben was really touched by it. Hopefully he can remember that spirit and overcome his addiction.  Please keep him in your prayers. 

This week at basketball, I had the WORST shooting day of my entire life. I swear I was probably 2/40 (including warm ups). I'm not a great ball player, but I normally can make a decent amount of shots.  But man, Thursday was just so bad, I did absolutely horrible. I made one 3-pointer right in front of this guy's face, and everyone cheered and was like "OOOH HE ACTUALLY MADE ONE" and just hyped me up, it was a fantastic moment and I was really ashamed but also proud. If you haven't noticed, I experience very conflicting emotions while playing sports. But yeah, basketball is always a great time and I love getting roasted by everyone. The mission sure is a very humbling experience hahaha. 

I try to read a conference talk every day during my study time and I read a really good one this week.  It's called "Spiritual Crocodiles" by Elder Boyd K. Packer from the April 1976 General Conference. ( https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1976/04/spiritual-crocodiles?lang=eng )  He shared some cool stories and analogies but you can all read those for yourself.  He shared a message about prayer that really stood out to me this week, seeing how so many prayers of mine were answered.  He said, "Learn how to pray and how to receive answers to your prayers.  When you pray over some things, you must patiently wait a long, long time before you will receive an answer. Some prayers, for your own safety, must be answered immediately, and some promptings will even come when you haven’t prayed at all.  Once you really determine to follow that guide, your testimony will grow and you will find provisions set out along the way in unexpected places, as evidence that someone knew that you would be traveling that way."  I really love how he uses the word "guide" to describe the Holy Ghost, because that really is one of his biggest roles.  He guides us to those blessings and answers that God has in store for us, we just have to reach out and pray and have faith and our Heavenly Father will give us those answers and blessings.  He wants to bless us, we just have to let him. 

Well, that's about all I have time for this week. I wish I could just call everyone on my email list and share all the cool stories, but alas, I cannot. I hope that is an appropriate way to use the word alas, I'm not really sure what it actually means.  Anyway, love and miss you all.  Everyone have a great week and do something nice for someone! 

Elder Spangler

I got a date

Hello my friends and family!  How is everyone?  This week was all over the place, it was pretty difficult at some points, but we had some miracles that made it so much better!

I'm just going to come out swinging to start this email and share the awesome miracle we had. We invited Derek and Hailey to come to church on Sunday, but they couldn't make it, which was sad because they had been planning on coming.  Thankfully, we had a lesson planned with them later that day, and it was going to be at the Portland Temple's Visitor Center.  So we met them at the VC and were talking about temples and the importance of them and why they are such a big deal in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We explained to them that through temples, we can be with our families forever and that we can receive everlasting joy through the promises we make with God in the temple.  We asked Derek what he'd be willing to do in order to get to the temple, and he said "I'd do anything to strengthen my relationship with God, He is the most important."  That was the PERFECT ANSWER.  We then invited him to take the first step of strengthening that relationship and asked if he'd prepare to be baptized on July 6th, and he said yes!  Then we asked both Derek and Hailey if they'd prepare themselves to go to the temple and perform baptisms on behalf of their deceased ancestors, and they said yes to that too!  It was the coolest experience, I'm really really excited to help them both progress and eventually reach the ultimate goal of the temple.  Please continue to keep them in your prayers!! 

Alright, let's see what else happened this week that is worth sharing.  Oh yeah, another cool miracle, some missionaries from the Eugene, Oregon Mission called us the other day and said, "Hey we have a guy moving up to your area and he's about to get baptized, you guys just need to teach him a few more lessons."  So we're going to have a baptism pretty soon, I'm really excited about that!  We'll meet the guy on Sunday and I'll make sure to include more info about him next week. 

We played soccer with the YSA's on Saturday again and it was super fun as always.  I also got to embarrass myself again!  I was playing as goalie and someone kicked it to try and score and it rolled pretty slowly right to my foot, so I was like "oh easy block, I'll pass it out."  I went to go kick it and I completely whiffed it and the ball rolled into the goal at like .2 miles per hour and then we lost the game.  So now I've embarrassed myself in soccer, basketball, and volleyball while on my mission. I'm excited to see which sport is next!

Recently I've been reading the War Chapters in the Book of Mormon. These chapters are just stories of wars and battles and stuff like that, and sometimes it's hard to see how it's applicable to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I have always loved these chapters, but mainly because I just like stories like that and I enjoy reading them.  A few weeks ago, I listened to a recording of a devotional by John Bytheway, who is a public speaker in the Church, and it was all about the lessons we can learn from these chapters.  As I've been reading I've been trying to find ways to apply the gospel of Jesus Christ to what I read just like it talks in the devotional. In Alma 50:6 it says,  "Thus Moroni did prepare strongholds against the coming of their enemies, round about every city in all the land."  Moroni, who was the chief captain, did all he could to prepare himself and his people for war. And if you turn to verse 23 of chapter 50, it says, "But behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni, yea, even at this time, in the twenty and first year of the reign of the judges." Even admist all the wars, trials, suffering, and death going on around them, these people were still the happiest people there had ever been in the land.  I like to think it's because they were spiritually and physically prepared for the trials they were going to go through.  If we fortify ourselves and make sure we are doing all we can to prepare ourselves and our families to overcome the trials and tribulations we will face, we can still be incredibly happy.  So make sure you are doing all you can to prepare yourself and your families. 

I hope all of you have a great week! Miss all of you, thank you to those who emailed me this past week! 

Elder Spangler

Our Visitor's Center lesson with Derek & Hailey and our Ward mission leader. 

Three of the six Zones in the mission.

We got some fat gyros from the street carts in downtown Portland. 

Missionary Squad picture

Tongans are so nice

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day and spoiled their moms with lots of amazing gifts and presents and chocolates and flowers. This week was so good, so much happened.  It's been one of the busiest weeks of my mission.  Normally I rely on my journal to remember what has happened throughout the week, but I missed so many days this week so we're going only on memory. 

First things first, I hit my three month mark yesterday!  It's pretty crazy because I feel like I've been out for like 7 years but also only 3 days so it's all over the place.  All I know is that I'm super excited for the next 21 months, wherever they may be. I have already learned and grown so much and I'm excited to continue to improve and help others find the light of the gospel!

Wednesday was transfer day.  It was fun to see all the missionaries from my zone, but I was pretty much just walking around aimlessly while everyone was transferring because I know hardly anyone, so that was fun. We picked up Elder Lui and he is so awesome. He's half Tongan/half Samoan and he speaks Tongan, which is really helpful in a Tongan ward!  The trio life is actually a party, the only downsides are; I have to sit in the back of the car, and I don't get to talk as much in lessons or contacts. Other than that, it's a ton of fun and we just have a blast. 

So this week we spent a lot of time getting to know the members because we're brand new in the ward. The first member we visited asked us to put her bike together, and when we left she said "Hey we have an extra rotisserie chicken, do you want it? Oh and some kings Hawaiian rolls too?"  And that's pretty much how it goes at every house we visit. I have been offered so much food over the past few days and it's so nice. I'm going to get nice and fat before I go to Ecuador and then I'll just lose it all there. It's a pretty solid plan in my head. 

Another fun thing about the Tongans, they love to pick on me. Here are some quotes from this week. 

"Hey man, you know who you look like? You ever seen that movie Forrest Gump? Yeah that guy."

"Hey you're only allowed to sit there if you look older than 16."

"Boy you look like you're 14 years old."

Just fun stuff like that. It's lots of fun and my self confidence is really thriving. Haha, it really is a lot of fun, I love the members and I love messing around with them, it's the best. 

Man I can barely remember what we did, my mind is so jumbled right now. OH we had another lesson with Hailey and Derek! We taught them the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and it went so well!  Surprisingly, this was my first time teaching the restoration, but I think I did a pretty good job, and Elder Marcum and Lui killed it. The spirit was so strong and we invited them to read the book of Mormon and to pray and ask if it's true.  Derek, who has been taught by missionaries in the past, said, "I've been asked to read this book several times before, I have like 5 copies in my house, but I haven't actually really read any of it. I'm going to read it this time though." I was so excited!  Please keep them in your prayers, I want them to continue to progress. 

Well, I think that's going to be it for today.  I just want to say how grateful I am to be a missionary here in Portland.  Sometimes I want to be in Ecuador, but I know the Lord has a very specific plan for me and there are people here that I need to find and teach. I love this work and love helping people come closer to Jesus Christ. 

Have a good week! Thank you to those who email me and I'm sorry if I don't get a chance to respond! Love and miss you all!

Elder Spangler

TRANSFERS

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone has had a fantastic week, I definitely have. We had some awesome miracles and it's been the coolest. 

First things first, we got transfer news this week! It's crazy to me that I've been out in the field for 6 weeks already. I will hit my 3 month mark this week and that's just insane.  It feels like it's been 10 years since the MTC but also feels like I've been here for only like 5 days, it's a weird feeling. But anyways, back to transfers.  Elder Marcum and I will be staying in the Canyon Road YSA!  But......we will be getting another companion so I will now be in a trio!  His name is Elder Lui and he's a super cool guy.  Also....we will also be serving in the Pacific Ward, which is a ward made up of Tongans, Samoans, and people from pretty much any other Pacific Island.  I'm so excited!  All the other missionaries in the mission are so jealous because this is apparently like the ideal situation, so I'm stoked to be here. The Pacific Ward actually has been the AP area for almost two years and now it's not, so it's crazy that they're putting us there.  But yeah, this transfer is going to be a great one, I'm super super excited. 

We had an awesome miracle this week!  Actually, it started last week, but we didn't see it as a miracle until this week. So last week, we were trying to find someone who had been taught by missionaries before and we went to this apartment and knocked on the door.  This man, who was probably in his 50's, opens the door so we were like, "Aw man not the YSA we were looking for."  He was covered in tattoos and seemed kind of like a rough guy, but then we were talking to him and he told us he was a convert to the Church, and the person we were looking for was his less-active daughter's boyfriend!  We were super excited about it so we got the contact information and set up a lesson with both of them. We went over and met with them and Hailey, the daughter, said "it's been a long time since I've been to church.  I want to start coming back."  Then her boyfriend, Derek, was like "if you want to get closer to God, you have to do more than go to church."  Keep in mind that this guy is not a member. But yeah, it was just so cool, we had a solid lesson and talked about prayer and how God really does answer us. The spirit was really strong and it just went super well.  After the lesson we said, "Hey we have an activity for college aged people tonight, we're doing a trivia night, do you want to come?" And they said yes, and totally came!  It was so awesome, they said they loved it.  Next week they'll probably come to church, so keep them in your prayers! 

I'm realizing that all of my emails have begun to have the same exact format every week.  I'll try to change it up next week.  It's easier when I have time to sit at a computer and just crank out an email, but P-days are crazy so I can't do that unfortunately.  Hopefully my emails aren't starting to bore people, if you have ideas for me to spice it up, shoot me an email and I'll see if I want to use it. 

Okay,  I had another cool scripture realization this week. Well, it wasn't really a realization, but some cool insight. I was reading in Alma 34, a fantastic chapter, and I read verses 26 and 27. They say "26 But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness. 

27 Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you."

I really like these verses a lot, they're a great reminder to us. Sometimes it's hard to remember God and Jesus Christ in all that we do because life is busy. But I know that if we pray often and pour out our hearts to God, he will hear us and grant us with what we need. And when we aren't saying a real prayer, we can keep a prayer in our heart, which will help us stay focused on our Savior each and every day. I just really like these verses and I think we can all apply them really well to our lives. 

One more quick story. On Saturday we went and played soccer with a bunch of YSA people at a park. It's super fun and we always have a great time. However, on Saturday, I was playing defender and one of my teammates was trying to clear the ball and get it to the other side of the field.  He was probably 5 feet away from me and he just launched the ball and it would have gone really far... if it hadn't smashed me right in the face.  He just drilled my nose and the right side of my face so hard, I thought my nose was broken.  Thankfully there was no damage and the pain subsided after a few minutes.  It must have looked pretty awesome though, I wish someone had gotten it on video. 

Unfortunately I am all out of time for today. I hope everyone has a fantastic week. If you need help or want an answer for something, just pray. I know God will hear your prayers and help you receive the things you need. Love and miss all of you!

Elder Spangler