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
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