Call Me Mozart

HOLA MIS QUERIDOS AMIGOS Y FAMILIARES, COMO ESTÁN??

This week was great, we had some really good appointments and activities and things this week, it was a lot of fun. 

We had a cita with Rafael and we asked him the questions of the baptismal interview. We were able to figure out the things he still doesn't quite understand or believe, so we now know what we need to focus on. He's close, just a couple small things and he'll be ready for baptism. Please keep him in your prayers!

We found a super super awesome family this week. They're from Venezuela and they only have 5 months in Ecuador, same as me. It's a mom, her three kids, and her niece. They are so solid and so prepared for the gospel, our lessons with them are always so fun. In our second visit, the mom said, "Every time you guys come I always feel like something really good is going to happen." So cool. Their only problem is that they always work super late on Saturday nights, like until 4am, so it's really hard for them to come to church because they're so exhausted. Prayers for them would also be much appreciated!

This week we had our first piano class. There is an Hermana missionary serving here and she plays the piano really well, and I play okay, so the stake president's wife asked us to teach piano classes because there are a ton of people in our branch who want to learn. We taught them the notes, where they are on the piano, and how to read music. I was super impressed, they could all play the melody of the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee" by the end of the hour. 

We also did a cool activity with our district in a city 30 minutes away called Pelileo. We went to a park and set up a table and white board talking about the Word of Wisdom, and then all the companionships went out and invited people to come listen to our message.  It was super successful, we got a ton of people's info that want to hear more about the gospel.  Then at the end, we were getting ready to take a picture with the board, and then a huge gust of wind came and blew the board over and it landed on my back. That part wasn't fun. It didn't do any damage though, just a little sore. 

That lady who tried to shove her kiss in my face last week found us again, and she shoved another kiss in my face. We see her in the street all the time and I always book it to the other side of the street to avoid her. Good times here in Ecuador. 

Today for P-day we went to a place called "Casa del Arbol" and it was super fun. It's basically a huge swing on the side of a cliff and when you look down it's a massive drop and you freak out and it's awesome. Definitely going to go back there. 

Welp, that's all for this week. I hope everyone enjoys Thanksgiving, feel free to send me some turkey!!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Spangler

Stop Flirting Please

HELLO TO ALL

This week was really good, I made some solid growth and learned a lot and saw miracles and I really love being a missionary.  Life is good. 

This past week I hit 9 months as a missionary, 5 months in Ecuador, and one year of having my mission call.  Crazy.  I still sometimes am in awe that I actually am in Ecuador and that I actually can speak Spanish and that people can actually understand me.  Being a missionary is the best. 

We had Zone Conference and interviews with our President this week as well. We weren't able to have them last transfer because of all the protests, so it was really nice to be able to receive some counsel and advice from President Barlow. He's a really good man. He said something that I really liked and that I think can apply to every one of us. He said, "There's no growth in the comfort zone, and there's no comfort in the growth zone." Change is really hard, but it always makes us better. Whenever we take that next step to push ourselves, the Lord gives us the strength we need to deal with the discomfort. I have definitely seen that principle in action in my time as a missionary, no doubt about that.

I spent a good chunk of time cleaning our apartment this past week. It was super gross. I would send pictures, but I don't want to make anyone sick. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but I am normally a very clean person and I hated living in a messy place. I cleaned the stove, the refrigerator, the toilet, the shower, the sink, the windows, and scrubbed the mold off the walls and ceiling. I still have a lot of work to do though.

I had some interesting experiences with the Ecuadorian women this week. The first one happened as we were walking to go contacting and I said hello to a middle aged lady on the street. She said hi back, then did a double take when she saw me, then proceeded to kiss her hand and then shove it in my face. Thankfully I was able to back away in time, but it was still pretty uncomfortable for me. The next one happened probably an hour later, as we were contacting in a little community off to the side of the main city. Some women who had obviously been drinking walked passed us. We mostly ignored them, but one of them got really close to me and smiled and did a little finger wave and said "Ooooh, hola hermano." I just kept walking, but then probably 30 seconds later I heard her yell, "HERMANO" So I turned around (don't ask me why), and she blew a couple kisses at me. Then she drove passed us and tried to get my attention again, but this time I just ignored her and she didn't do anything. Thankfully, experiences like this are an anomaly, but it was still pretty interesting. Elder Santiago was really enjoying it and has brought it up every day since it has happened, haha.

 All of us missionaries gave talks this week in our branch and they asked that we all give a 6 minute talk about missionary work. I prepared a 6 minute message and was ready to go, but the other 3 missionaries hadn't. The meeting went a little bit like this: 1st missionary; 3.5 minutes. 2nd missionary; 4 minutes. 3rd missionary; 5 minutes. Me; 10 minutes. Hahah. It was pretty cool though because I was able to come up with something on the fly and it applied to the topic and it made sense. There was a family from Utah visiting the ward, and the mother came up to me and said, "I do believe I saw The Gift of Tongues working on you during your talk, that was amazing." I had prayed before I spoke that my Spanish would be clear and that my message would bring the Spirit, and this sister confirmed to me that my prayed had been answered. It was a really cool experience and I am so thankful that Heavenly Father answers prayers. 

I didn't take that many pictures this week, so sorry about that.

That's all I got this week, hope everyone has a super duper week and that each of you make some steps into the growth zone!! Love and miss you all!

Elder Spangler

The "Egg Roll" that I made

The moon

The view from our apartment

Pancakes and Old Ladies

Hello everyone!

This week was pretty solid, we had some nifty experiences and saw some cool miracles.

We found a cool area to go contacting, it's called Lligñay.  In order to pronounce it, just pretend like you are eating a banana and talking at the same time, and then it will sound correct. We found some good people to teach over there, and it's really pretty, so win win. 

Okay, so we have a couple of investigators that are progressing right now, and a lot of investigators that we've only taught one or two times. Our most solid person is a man named Rafael, he's been taking missionary lessons for almost 5 years. His son served a full-time mission and his wife is a member, but he's not quite there yet. We are currently helping him realize that he has a sufficient testimony for baptism and are re-explaining the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think he's close, he's showing signs of progress. We are also teaching a Venezuelan man named Gandy, he's awesome. He works a lot in his barbershop so it's sometimes hard to visit him or get him to church, but the visits we've had have been great. We have a few more people, but the majority of our teaching pool is pretty new.

When we go contacting in the morning, 99% of the people that answer are just older ladies that are at home making lunch.  Lunch is the biggest meal here, so they sometimes start prepping the food as early as 8am to be ready by 1pm. We've set up lots of lessons with older women, we'll see how they all turn out. 

This past week we were visiting a family of members and they mentioned that they love love love pancakes, but they haven't found any good ones around here. I mentioned that I always made pancakes back home and that I had a great recipe from my Uncle Mel, so they invited me to come over and do a Family Home Evening and I made them pancakes. They loved them so much and now when they see me they call me "Elder King of the Pancakes." 

We went to the zoo today for P-day, it was pretty cool. The animals were pretty neat, but I enjoyed the english descriptions of the animals. They were awful, I loved it. 

I ate chicken foot again this week, but this time I actually ate it. Thankfully when they served it it wasn't an entire foot, they had just kind of scraped the skin and meat off and put it in the soup, along with the gizzard. Gotta love Ecuadorian food. 

I found a really cool scripture this week, it's been a good motivation to me during some rough patches I've been having. It is found in The Book of Mormon, in Enos 1:27. It says, And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him I shall rest. And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father. Amen. I still have a long way to go until I finish my mission and until I die (I hope), but it's a really good reminder that if I do all I can do here in this life, then the day when I see Christ will be a day of pleasure, a day of peace. 

That's it for this week, hope all is well in your lives!!  Please write!

Elder Spangler

Tender Mercies and a Sad Halloween

HELLO EVERYONE, HAPPY LATE HALLOWEEN!!  I hope all is going well for everyone!  I had a fantastic week, lots of little miracles and tender mercies.

Halloween: Another American holiday that came and went here in the jungles of Ecuador. We didn't celebrate or do anything to acknowledge that it was Halloween, but it's okay, I just got some candy and ate too much and it felt just like home. 

The branch here in Baños is pretty solid. About 100 members come each Sunday and there's a lot of really good, faithful members. We had fast and testimony meeting yesterday. It was a really uplifting one. All of the members bore powerful and simple testimonies and invited the Spirit really strong into the chapel. 

I ate chicken gizzard, chicken heart, and chicken foot this week. All in the same meal. It was horrendous and I wanted to die, but I was able to live through it, mostly because I didn't actually eat all of the chicken foot. I was on an exchange with Elder Carney in his area, and when we saw the foot on the plate, we both just cried inside. The hermano left the room for a second, and Elder Carney just looked at me and then started scraping off the meat from the foot as fast as he could, and then just chucked it in his napkin, which then went into his pocket. I had eaten a few bites of the foot and it was heinous, so figured I might as well just follow Elder Carney's lead, so the majority of the chicken foot ended up in my pocket as well. I felt kind of bad about it because he had taken his time to make this food for us, but I think it's better to not eat it than to throw up in his home. 

One of the cool tender mercies we had this week happened while we were out contacting. We were knocking doors and as we were walking, we saw a family a little way down a dirt path, and Elder Santagio and I felt like we should both go and talk to them. However, there were three massive dogs on the path, and most of the time when you enter someone's property, the dogs aren't too happy about it. Elder Santiago said, "Yeah, we have to talk to them, so you take the lead and if the dogs bark, just kick them, okay?" I figured we'd be okay, so I started down the path and all three dogs came running and barking, but they didn't touch me. We got up to where the couple was standing without the dogs touching us, and we were able to introduce ourselves. Turns out they were a family of less active members that the Baños branch had been looking for for a long time. We were able to have a good visit with them and got to know them better. I was a special experience because first, the Lord prompted us both to talk to them, and second, He protected us from the dogs. I love being a missionary, just for experiences like that. 

I was going to send some updates on our investigators out here, but I want to talk to my family, so next week I will make sure to talk about the people we're teaching. 

I love and miss you all, thank you to those that still email me! Have a great week, until next time!

Elder Spangler

My halloween costume that I found in Elder Carney's house

A postcard picture I took

An active volcano that's super close to where I live