I Love to See The Prophet

Hello everyone!!  This is going be another short one because I am in Quito right now.  Our prophet, Russell M. Nelson, is having a devotional for all the people of Ecuador and us missionaries have the privilege of attending, so I'm super stoked for that.  I will be sure to include all of the amazing things I hear and spiritual impressions I receive in next week's email.  

For those of you who don`t know, my family is moving to Annapolis, Maryland within the next few weeks. I miss Texas and will continue to miss it when I return home, but I am excited to live on the East Coast. BUT, I have 18 months before that happens, so I`m not thinking about it much. 

I normally have my journal and camera with me when I write emails, but I have neither of those things right now. I also don`t really have time for more than this, so I will make sure to send a more detailed email next week with lots of photos. 

Love and miss you all, have a great week and read the Book of Mormon!

Elder Esplanger

Ummm 6 months

Hello everyone!  This will probably be a short one because my sister just had her baby so I'm an uncle now and I would like to meet my first ever nephew.  BUT this week was superb, I had a lot of fun.  

Okay first off, I hit 6 months! That´s 1/4 of the way there, not that I´m counting down or anything. But its really neat to look back and see the growth I have experienced these past 6 months, the mission really does change your life. I´m super excited for these next 18 months and to grow more and become better!

Something I have been working on recently is trying to drop the word "um" from my vocabulary because apparently I say it a lot. It´s really hard, but I am making progress. 

Two weeks ago, this big white male walked into the chapel holding hands with one of the members and I was quite surprised. I went and talked with him and I found out his name is Trent and he´s from Topeka, Kansas, and he is planning on moving here after he weds the member of our ward. It was so great to hear him speak Spanish cause he sounded just like I did when I got to the MTC, just a mixture of English and incorrect but undersandable Spanish. He´s a good friend now, I love it. 

I just want to share a quick scripture that I read this week about Jesus Christ, I hope it helps someone out. It is from Mosiah 14, verses 3-5.

"3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

Well, sorry for a pretty unexciting entry, but it is time for me to bid farewell. I hope all of you have a fantasic week and enjoy the last few weeks of summer!

Elder Spangler

Also sorry I´m lame and didn´t take any pictures except one this week. Please enjoy it.

Popcorn Popping

Hello to all of my friends and family!

This week was a real good one, we did some good, hard work.  Although we didn´t see a ton of fruits from our labors, I know that the Lord is happy with the work we put in. 

Something I love about Ecuador, but also don´t like at the same time, are the dogs. There are like 17 million stray dogs here in La Concordia; some of them are really good friends of mine, and some of them try to eat me. It´s a really fun game to try to guess which type of dog it will be when I approach it on the street. One of these days I´m gonna count how many dogs I see and share the number so you can have an idea of what it´s like. 

I haven´t said much about the food here, but it´s great. Nice and simple. We eat a lot of rice, chicken, beef, rice, and rice. I think I´ve had only 4 meals here without rice, but hey, I love rice so it's all good. Something weird that they do here is they put popcorn in their soup, but it´s actually so good. Next time you make yourself some Split Pea Soup, pop some popcorn and throw it in there. 

This week we had a pretty cool experience with some of our investigators. We invited all the people we are teaching and all the members of our ward to a movie night last Friday, and we showed the Joseph Smith movie. Some of our investigators have been struggling with some difficulties and problems and its been hard for them, but when they saw the persecutions of the prophet Joseph Smith and the early Saints and how much our Heavenly Father helped them, they realized that their problems weren´t too much to handle and that our Father in Heaven will help them overcome these trials if they have the necessary faith. It was so cool to see them learn this and apply the experiences of Joseph Smith to their lives. 

I recently downloaded a bunch of General Conference talks and BYU Devotionals and I listen to them whenever I have any time to spare and I love it so much. I was listening to a BYU Devotional from Elder David A. Bednar called, "In the Strength of the Lord" the other day and something he shared really stuck out to me. He shared the story of Nephi when he had been tied up by his brothers and left to die in the desert. I Nephi 7:17 says "O Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren; yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound.” After reading this verse, Elder Bednar says, "It is especially interesting to me that Nephi did not pray, as I probably would have prayed, to have his circumstances changed. Rather, he prayed for the strength to change his circumstances."  I have pondered a lot on this statement and thought back on my own life to see if I have done this whenever I am faced with trials. I realized I have been rather demanding in my prayers, asking for what I want to be instead of asking for the strength to become what the Lord wants me to be. I love the example of humility and trust in the Lord that Nephi shows here in this story, and it´s something we all can apply to our lives. If we ask God to give us the strength we need to change our circumstances instead of asking him to just change and take away our problems, that is when we will see miracles and the hand of God in our life. 

That´s all the time I have this week. I hope this has been an enjoyable email. I never reread them so sorry for any grammatival errors haha. I love and miss you all and I hope you can trust in God and ask for the strength you need to become what he wants you to be. Have a great week!!

Elder Spangler

I love Venezulanos

Hello my dear friends and family, this week has been great!  Each week I can see more and more miracles and see myself improving each day, the mission is the greatest.  

Okay so last week I titled my email, "La Concordia; Round 2," but completely forgot to mention that I will be staying in La Concordia for another 6 weeks and Elder Azabache will be staying here with me!  I´m excited to be here for another transfer, I love this area and the work here is fantastic. 

Speaking of the work being fantastic, we had a crazy awesome miracle this week. I´m pretty sure I´ve mentioned the Venezualen family that we found last transfer, but if not, we´re teaching a family of 6 from Venezuela and they´re so solid. We met with them 2 times this week and both lessons just went so well and they asked great questions and I just love teaching them.  In our second lesson, we read from Mosiah 18 and talked about baptism and invited them all to be baptized, and all 6 said yes!  We set a date for September 7th and they´re all really excited for it! It´s the best to see people grow and come to learn about the gospel and make that commitment, it makes all the hard days and work totally worth it. 

Another cool miracle; we met a less active member of the church last week, and this week he called us and said "Elders, I have a friend here that has been asking me questions about the church and I was able to teach her a little bit about the Plan of Salvation. She wants to know more and would also like a blessing to help her out."  I am almost positive that he wouldn´t have had that conversation with her if God hadn´t led us to him last week. It´s so cool to see how our Heavenly Father uses us to help others become a tool in his hands. 

Well, that´s all the time I have today. I took no pictures this week, so sorry about that. I will do better this week for sure.  I hope all of you have a great week!  Do some service for someone!

Elder Spangler