Rain and Pain

Hello to all my dear friends and family!!

This week was awesome, I loved every minute of it.  I hope everyone has been choosing the right and also had a superb week. 

It rained every single day this week, which is weird because in all 3 months of my time here in La Concordia, it has only rained 3 times.  No one here uses umbrellas, so of course, I wasn't going to be a wimpy gringo and use one, so we got home to the apartment every day pretty wet.  It is also too hot and humid to use rain jackets, so we just went out like normal and tried to avoid the big puddles.  It's actually fun and I feel like the people are more accepting because they see that the rain doesn't stop us from working. 

I ate chicken gizzard this week.  It was gross.  It was like eating cut up bouncy balls that had been marinated in canned chicken juice.  I ate all of it though, so go me. 

Another nifty thing from this week;  We had lunch with a member and I rolled my napkin into a ball and threw it into a cup from like 20 feet away.  I then proceeded to do it 5 more times and it was amazing and no one else could do it.  Definitely one of the highlights of the week. 

We had ward conference this week, and I was asked to play the piano for the choir. Thankfully, they had asked me about a month ago, so I had time to learn the new songs.  We sang ''Praise to the Man'' and ''Come, Ye Children of the Lord'' and it went great and I didn't have any problem playing them.  However, what I didn't know was that they also had planned on me playing the Sacrament hymn, but it was a song I wasn't familiar with, so I couldn't play it.  I just sat awkwardly at the piano as we sang acapella and watched Elder Muentes and a member crack up as I sang the hymn. It was a good time. 

One more quick story; Today for P-day we planned to bike again to a member's farm and hang out there, then bike back. The ride was going great until I saw a truck stopped in the middle of the road.  I tried to break to stop, but the breaks were not functional, so I tried to swerve.  But as I began to swerve, I saw a car coming towards me, so I ended up just smashing into the back of the truck and completely destroying the bike that I had rented. The miracle was I was able to jump off the bike in time to avoid colliding my body into the truck and also had sufficient space to not get hit by the car that was driving towards me. I also managed to stay on my feet and the only injury I received was a small bruise on my hand. I also didn't have to pay for the damage to the bike because it was the fault of the breaks not working. God really does protect his missionaries, no doubt about that. 

I wish I could share all of my great stories every week, but I don't have sufficient time to do so.  Just know that every day is a new adventure and I love everything that I am doing here and that's all you need to know. 

I was reading in the Book of Mormon the other day and was in the section of Christ's ministry in the Americas, which has always been one of my favorite sections of the Book of Mormon.  I read in chapter 19, verse 26, which says, ''26 And Jesus said unto them: Pray on; nevertheless they did not cease to pray."  I love this scripture because it is super simple advice from our Savior Jesus Christ.  Pray On.  That's all we need to do.  Almost every miracle I have seen on my mission has been brought about by a faithful prayer, so I know without a doubt that our Heavenly Father answers our prayers.  If you are facing a challenge or question or doubt or worry, all you need to do is pray, and then pray on.  It's not a one and done thing, it needs to be continuous.  I invite all of you to be specific in your prayers and wait for your answer with faith, and I know that your answer will come. 

Sorry, I don't have that many pictures this week, but 4 is better than 0. 

That's it for this week, I hope all of you have a fantastic week and are prepared for General Conference this upcoming weekend!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Spangler

Miracles and other Miracles

WHAT'S UP, EVERYONE?

How has everyone been?  It´s been a while since I´ve heard from some of you all, please don´t forget about me, I want to hear from you all!

This was another big learning week for me, I love the growth that I am experiencing here in Ecuador.  The mission really is a life-changing experience.

This week I hit 3 months in Ecuador!  Portland feels like a lifetime ago, but I´ve loved these last 3 months and I am super stoked for the next 16 here.  I also have a lot of hope for what my Spanish can become because I´ve progressed a ton in just 3 months. It´s a miracle. 

I don´t know how many have heard, but the Church is publishing videos of the Book of Mormon and the first one came out this week!  It´s so so good and it really helps with understanding some of the things that happened in the Book of Mormon.  Miracle.  If you haven´t watched it yet, here is the link: https://youtu.be/edg-0hAM3iA

I ate a crab this week. Like a full crab with all the legs and little eye stalks and everything. The miracle is, I actually really liked it, I am still surprised.  Still don´t like fish though, I had to eat it again this week and it was a struggle.  Little by little, it´ll come. 

The biggest miracle we saw this week happened on Sunday.  We had invited our investigators to church, but by the time the sacrament had started, none of them had shown up.  I was feeling pretty bummed out and disappointed in myself, so during the sacrament, I was able to offer up a pretty heartfelt prayer.  Right as the sacrament ended, one of our investigators walked in and stayed the rest of the time.  We had a lot of lessons planned for the afternoon, so we weren´t going to have much time to find new people to teach.  We had only found 3 new people for the week, which is pretty low for this sector.  We went to all of our lessons we had planned, and in every single one, the families we were teaching brought someone else, so we were able to find 5 new people to teach, all of which seem pretty solid. It´s so awesome to see the hand of God putting other people in my path, I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father. 

I neglected to take photos this week, so, unfortunately, I won´t be sending any pictures today.  I´ll do better this next week though!

I hope everyone has a gnarly week and focuses on the miracles that you see each day! 

Con amor, 

Elder Spangler

September 16th

Hello everyone!!  Elder Spangler is back again!  This week was a week of learning for me, it was fantastical. 

Elder Muentes is awesome, we have a lot of fun together.  He only has 5 months in the mission and I now have 7(as of the 13th), so we`re a pretty young companionship.  We work hard though and we`re just having a blast.  He wants to learn English, so we only speak English in our house.  It`s weird because he`ll say something in English, and I`ll automatically respond in Spanish.  I guess that`s a good thing, right?  It`s also funny because anytime he says something right in English, he gets all excited and says "Ya soy gringo man," which means, "I`m already white man."  It`s a good time.

The other day we were out contacting and we met a man who told us that he has an old folk's home on his property and that if we wanted we could stop by and share a message with all the elderly people.  We obviously didn`t say no, so the next morning we went and shared a short message about Jesus Christ with all of them; a group of 12 and a group of 18.  It was a pretty cool experience, and they all clapped when we left so I felt super awesome.  We might go back again this week, we´ll see.

We went back to Los Bancos this week, that branch that is starting up. We went to a sacrament meeting of 16 people and Elder Muentes and I both had to give talks, 'on the fly'. Thankfully it was only 16 people.  I shared Helaman 5:12 and talked about Jesus Christ, I think I did pretty well.  My Spanish flowed well and I was able to say the things I wanted. The Gift of Tongues is real. 

That`s all the time I have this week. I hope everyone has a marvelous next 7 days and remembers to say their prayers!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Spangler

I'M A REAL BOY (with baptisms)

HELLO EVERYONE I AM BACK

This week was crazy, so much stuff happened, we were super busy.  First off, transfers came this week!  I will be staying in La Concordia for another 6 weeks, and Elder Azabache will be headed off to Quito! Pretty sad that he`s leaving, he`s a good missionary, but I`m excited to continue the work here in La Concordia!  Elder Muentes, from Guayaquil, will be my new companion. I don`t know anything about him, so more news on that next week.  The end of this transfer means that I AM FINALLY DONE WITH TRAINING!!!!  I was trained 2 transfers in Oregon and then 2 more here, so now I am officially a real missionary that is not being trained! 

We had 2 more baptisms this week!  Ramiro and Aran!  The rest of the Familia Contrera wasn`t feeling ready, so we had to push their date back a bit.  Aran was a total stud and set the example for his mom and aunts, and Ramiro finally got married on Tuesday and then was baptized on Saturday.  It was awesome to be a part of those two big events.  Aran and Ramiro both bore their testimonies after and it was so great.  The spirit came in super strong and I hope all the investigators there were able to feel it too. 

Some other cool things that happened this week: 

One of our members works in a technology store, and the other day he called me and asked me to come to his store and translate some instructions for a bluetooth game controller.  Turns out all you had to do to connect it was press the X and Home buttons at the same time.  I felt like a genius, it was awesome. 

We met a member and her children`s names are Hermione and Moroni.  Talk about the two best books ever.  I`m definitely naming my kids with Book of Mormon and Harry Potter names. 

We had a Noche De Hogar (Family Home Evening) with a member this week, and her mom and her sister were there.  She told them that I only recently got to Ecuador and they were both surprised because they said my Spanish sounded really good.  Then the hermana from our ward said "Yeah but it`s all the gift of tongues. When he first got here, he couldn`t understand a thing and I couldn`t understand him either."  It was a nice compliment. 

My area here is huge, we cover a sector 2 hours away called "Los Bancos."  This area has never had missionaries visit it, and this week Elder Azabache and I made history and went over there for a whole day.  We`re going to start going there one day a week and every other Sunday to get the work going there, so that should be a fun and exciting challenge. 

This email was kind of all over the place, but it`s all good. I also took some good pictures this week, so you can enjoy those. 

I hope everyone has a great week, don`t forget to say your prayers and read The Book of Mormon. 

Love and miss you all!!

Elder Weston Ludlow from back home in Allen, TX!

Apparently I'm Traumatized

HOLA MIS AMIGOS Y FAMILIA!  This was a crazy week, so many awesome experiences and some not so awesome ones too, but the Lord really is on our side as missionaries.  

Okay first, the devotional with President Nelson. That man is a chosen prophet of God, no doubt in my mind. In the few months that I have been here in Ecuador, I have noticed some things that the members of the church could strengthen, and President Nelson addressed pretty much all of them. Tithing, Sabbath day observance, the basic commandments. He knew exactly what the people of Ecuador needed to hear because he received direct revelation from God, it was so awesome. He also spoke in Spanish and that made me so happy to hear his gringo accent haha. 

The day after our devotional with President Nelson, we had Zone Conference, it was super, super good, one of the best I´ve had on my mission so far.  One of my favorite things my Mission President said was, "El camino del Señor es fácil; El mundo so lo hace complicado." If you don´t speak Spanish, this basically means "The path of the Lord is easy, the world is what makes it complicated."  I really like this perspective because if we think about the commandments that we have been asked to follow, they really aren´t all that difficult. The only thing that makes it hard is the influence of the world and of things that aren't as important, so when we get rid of the things of the world in our lives, life becomes simpler.  I would invite all of you to take a look at your lives and see what things are making the path of the Lord complicated, and then try to replace those things with things that will help you become better. 

In regards to the subject of my email; There is a dish here called Encebollado, and it´s probably like the most famous dish among missionaries.  The best way I can describe it is fish and onion soup, but it´s not as gross as that sounds. The other day we were at a member's house for lunch and I mentioned that I still hadn´t tried Encebollado and they were so shocked. They told us they were going to take us to breakfast the next morning so I could try it.  What they didn´t know is that I hate fish with a burning passion, so I graciously accepted this offer to try this soup.  We got to the restaurant the next morning and I was trying to psych myself up for it, but in the end, it didn´t work.  I enjoyed the flavor, I thought it was really good, but something in my mind always says "You´re eating fish right now, you should be disgusted."  When I explained this after choking down the last few bites, the member said, "Oh so you´re basically traumatized."  Seems like a valid diagnosis.  If anyone has some tips on how to get over this trauma, please let me know because this won´t be the last time I eat fish soup on my mission. 

Some sad news; Anthony and Nereida, two members of the Venezuelan family, went back to Venezuela yesterday, so they won´t be getting baptized next week.  Hopefully they come back before I leave La Concordia, but who knows.  Please keep them in your prayers!

Well, that´s all folks.  Everyone have a superb week and try to keep life simple!

Love and miss you all!!

Elder Spangler

I´m not sure of the order of the photos, but:

The devotional

4 of the 6 members La familia Contreras

a cool street

my shoes get super dirty every day

Encebollado (fish & onion soup)