Hello my friends and family! This week was honestly one of the coolest weeks ever, I got to be a part of so many once in a lifetime experiences and it was just so awesome.
Something really cool about Portland is that the world headquarters of Nike is right in the suburbs, it's like 10 minutes away from my apartment. What's even cooler is that there's a TON of Polynesian people that work there, and a lot of them are members of the church. This week was the beginning of the Polynesian network at Nike and we got to be a part of it. Last Thursday, Elder Lui and I went to the Nike campus and played touch rugby with a bunch of guys, it was super fun. When we were leaving, a brother in one of the wards in the stake came up and said "hey elders, this afternoon at 3 we're going to be learning how to do the Haka and we're going to perform it at the 7 on 7 Rugby touch tournament tomorrow, are you guys in?" We figured this would be a really good way to meet a lot of the Polynesian members of the community, so we said yes. We went to the practice and learned how to do the Haka, and let me just say, it's not easy hahaha. The words and movements together are just way different than what I am used to so it took a while for me to get it down. Actually I never got it down. The morning after the practice, we dropped Elder Marcum off with some other elders because he was sick, and Elder Lui and I went to Nike again. We helped set up and then started the big opening ceremony. They did a kava ceremony and then we got up and did the Haka. First off, only 7 of us got up to perform it so we were already small in numbers. Second, there were about 150-200 people there so we had to be loud enough to let them all hear. The first maybe 30 seconds went really well, but then once we got to the part with a lot of words, literally all of us faltered and it went so quiet hahaha. Elder Lui already knew the chant and another guy who knew it before too pretty much dragged us through the end of it. They did great though, it was impressive. It was a really cool experience though, I was really glad to be a part of it. We played rugby for a while after and it was so much fun, it's a really cool sport.
We got to meet with Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf this week! Elder Uchtdorf is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who are the main leaders of the church. He came and talked with all of the missionaries and shared some really cool, powerful stuff. The spirit was so strong right when he walked into the room. I shook his hand and he looked me in the eyes and said "thank you for your service as a missionary" and right then I felt the spirit testify to me that this man was called by God to direct the members of the church. It was a really cool witness to receive and the spirit was just really strong the whole meeting. He talked a lot about personal conversion and how we need to make sure we are committed to the gospel and not doing things halfheartedly. I'm trying to do better with that and I would invite you all to do the same.
Okay Moses is seriously the most prepared for the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's insane. He takes notes the whole time during our lessons and it's so cool. I'm just like "woah he's writing down something that I said because it's important to him." We taught him twice this week and he also came to church. His questions are so good and he explains concepts of the gospel better than I do. I'm just still blown away that the fact that I prayed with faith for someone to baptize before I left, caused Moses to literally fall into our laps. He's so awesome. On Sunday he took a ton of notes and thanked every person who bore their testimony and got to know them. He really is just such an awesome guy and I'm really excited for his baptism on the 15th.
Hmm okay so this week I studied a lot about diligence and how we can stay focused and motivated because sometimes it's hard to do that as a missionary haha. I found a scripture from the bible that I really liked and I think it can apply to everyone. It's from 2 Timothy 4:7 and it says, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:" I want to be able to say this verse aloud to myself at the end of every day, every week, every month, my mission, literally at any end. I want to say it with complete confidence knowing that it is true. It takes a lot of work to be able to give a full effort, so whenever you feel discouraged or disheartened, remember the end goal you're working towards. Remember what it took to get to reach the point you're at now and focus on what it takes to reach the end. I think that's definitely something I need to improve on and if you feel like you could as well, take some time to remember and focus on what you've done and are doing.
Remember last week when I played basketball and I shot so bad and only made one 3-pointer? Well this week was the complete opposite. I was draining 3's from Steph Curry range and was totally on fire. The funny thing was if I didn't swish it, I airballed it. There was no in between. Everyone was so surprised with my new found shooting ability and they were all hyping me up it was really funny. Sports are a lot more fun to play when you actually perform well haha.
Well folks, that's all for this week. I hope all of you have a great week and recognize the hand of God in your life, He's there and He's helping, even if it doesn't feel like it. Love you all!
Elder Spangler
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