America

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TWO DAYS AGO WOO!

I hope everyone had a great independence day, COVID style.  We were invited to a BBQ with some members but had to be home at six so we didn't get to enjoy all the fourth of July fun, but it was still a great time.  We also didn't really see any fireworks because our house is a bottom floor apartment and here in California you apparently can't have fireworks over 20 ft, so we just got to hear a lot of them instead. 

We got to meet President and Sister Platt!  Man, they're so fun.  They're actually from Texarkana, Texas, so I was overjoyed to have some fellow Texans here with me.  It was so fun to get to meet them, they looked exactly how I felt when I first got to the mission and met my President, so it's pretty funny to be on the other side of things.  But I already love them, I'm excited to learn from them.

So last week, I mentioned that we were teaching a guy named Moses.  This week we were able to meet with him and teach him about the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ,  and we invited him to be baptized!  He said when he is ready, he will definitely get baptized, so we're really excited about that! Please keep him in your prayers! 

We had a cool miracle this past week.  I was with a different missionary in their area, and he was feeling a little disheartened because they weren't finding anyone to teach.  We decided to just call a bunch of people to set up some lessons, and the fourth call in, a man answered us.  We asked if there was a good time to do a video call or meet in person, and he said, "I have time right now."  We were stoked haha.  We talked to him a bit and he told us he had recently lost 2 close family members in a car accident and he was seriously injured, and that he had been struggling with that for a while.  We were able to share a brief message of hope with him and introduced the plan that God has for us and he was so grateful, it was an awesome miracle.  I haven't heard what has happened with him since, but if I hear anything I'll keep you all updated! 

We have a member here named Brother Douglas and he's just so awesome.  We go over to his house every week and we talk about all of his neighbors that he is sharing the gospel with and what he had done the past week to introduce them to the church, it's the coolest.  He said, "there are always opportunities to share the gospel, and most of the time they're staring you right in the face, you just have to look out for them!"  He's the best haha. 

Well, that's about it this week, I hope everyone has a fantastic week and that you all do 20 pushups if you say something mean to someone. 

Love and miss you all! 

Elder Spangler