Okay, be prepared, this is going to be a fatty ol´ letter. It´s been a while since I´ve been able to write a real letter and a lot has happened since then.
First things first, my man Moses was baptized!! It was such an awesome experience and it made me so so happy to see him there and make those covenants with our Heavenly Father. I´ll try to attach pictures from the service, it was beautiful.
Okay so I´m going to try to give a run down of everything that has happened in order for me to be sitting here in this little Cyber cafe in Ecuador. So on June 12th I went to Arizona to visit the Ecuadorian consulate and I got my visa and flew back to Portland that day. I got my travel plans a few days later and learned that I would be flying to Ecuador on June 17th. So on the 17th, I woke up at 3:30am and a senior missionary drove me to the airport. We went up to check into my flight, and right when I put in my flight number, a box popped up that said "FLIGHT HAS BEEN CANCELLED." We called church travel and the airline and figured everything out and got a flight for me the next morning on the 18th. I was actually fine with staying one extra day because I got to say goodbye to a lot of friends that I hadn´t had the chance to the day before. I definitely miss Portland and all the people I met there, but I love Ecuador so much already. Okay so, the morning of the 18th, I woke up at 2:30am and drove to the airport with the same senior missionary and checked in and everything was fine. I flew to Atlanta, Georgia and was there for a good while. I was eating in the food court and a hispanic man came up to me and said, "I see that you are an elder, how can I be a member of your church?" Ahahah it was awesome. I set up a lesson for him with the missionaries in his city in Mexico and then we talked for like 2 hours. It was so cool and I was able to teach a little bit in Spanish, the first time since the MTC. Hopefully it goes well with him. I was reunited with Elder Tall, my MTC companion at the gate and it was great to see him. SO the flight to Ecuador was going great until we were 15 minutes from landing. The pilot came over the speaker and said a volcano near the airport had blown a bunch of ash so we couldn't land. We ended up landing in Panama, refuelling, then flying back to Quito where all was well. We landed at 3am and then drove to the AP´s apartment and slept there. The next morning, we received our companions and areas. I am serving in La Concordia, an area closer to the coast. It´s fairly new to the mission, only about 8 months old. It is also the hottest and most humid area in the mission, which is a lot of fun. My companion is Elder Azabache, from Trujillo, Peru. He´s awesome and a really good missionary and I love him already.
Some experiences from this week: I got to give a blessing in Spanish yesterday. My Spanish is still pretty rough and my vocabulary is really limited, but I think it went okay.
Contacting people here is SO EASY compared to Portland. The other night we went out tracting for a little bit and every single door we knocked on set up a return appointment with us. Only two of the 8 have actually happened, but we have 5 new investagators from it.
I got to teach the Retoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time in Spanish. I know this one the best so I felt decently comfortable with it. I was able to recite the first vision and the spirit was so strong. The family seemed interested and touched, hopefully something will work out with them.
One of the biggest things I have learned during this transition is that I am doing the same work here that I was doing in Portland. I mean sure, it´s a different country and different language and different process, but the work is still exactly the same: inviting others to come unto Jesus Christ. It´s a really comforting thought when things get hard or when I feel discouraged.
I only have 2 hours a week now to read and respond to all the emails I receive, so it is less likely that I will be able to respond to you now. Please don´t stop writing though, I always look forward to hearing from everyone. Thank you to all who sent me birthday wishes, I really appreciate it!
I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL AND HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!
Elder Spangler
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