YEAH NEW YEARS

HELLLLLLOOOOO

Wasn't last week just splendid?  Christmas is the best ever and I am sad to see it go.  I feel like Faith Hill and I just want to go out in the snow and sing, "Where are you Christmas?" for the next 362 days until it comes back. 

Our Christmas was pretty low key but it was very enjoyable.  We spent Christmas Eve with some members and ate dinner with them, then we came home and drank egg nog, ate candy, and played games.  We also had a a big mission zoom call with a Christmas program which was a lot of fun.  Christmas day we munched on some rico french toast prepared by Elder Sebresos, then talked to our families.  I love my family.  We ate dinner with the bishop and his family and they're great, it's like a home away from home with them. 

Elder Sebresos and I showed some quality teamwork the other day when we gave one of our fellow missionaries a haircut.  It started out good and I got the sides nice and faded and even, then I got to the top and panicked and didn't know what to do so I passed it over to Elder Sebresos.  He tried for a little bit but the missionary who we were cutting lost hope and just asked for a buzz.  He now looks like a drill sergeant who would make you do 200 pushups for sneezing, it's pretty awesome. 

Our friends are doing well.  Arturo and Emersonn are plugging along, everyone else hasn't answered us. :(

I found a quote that I think really applies to this time of year, as the New Year is often a time to set goals and make plans. Elder Boyd K. Packer said, “Plant your fruit trees. Cultivate them, fertilize them, watch them grow, and enjoy the fruit thereof. If the end comes during the process, so what? Do not deprive yourself of enjoying the fruits of your labors by living in fear of the world’s problems that lie ahead.” I love this perspective. It's like when people say, "the joy is in the journey."  If we live in constant fear of the future, we won't enjoy the now.  It's a good mindset to have going into the new year. 

I am really looking forward to this new year and lots of exciting new adventures.  I'm stoked to continue to serve the Lord throughout next year, this really is the best work there is. 

That's all for this week. Love and miss you all! 

Elder Spangler

YEAH CHRISTMAS

HEYO

How has another week already gone?  Que en el mundo?  Time sure flies when you're a missionary, especially during Christmas time. 

We have been big time blessed by our members this week.  Since we are in quarantine, the bishop set up a calendar to have the members give us food every night, so we have grubbed up.  We got a lot of pasta and a lot of tortillas with the occasional fruit cup.  I love it, this ward is the best.

We've been able to participate in Light the World the last few weeks and it's been so awesome.  I highly recommend it.   Just text the word "light" to 71234 and you'll receive a prompt every day of a little activity you can participate in. 

Our friends are doing well.  It's been rough to get in touch with them which is lame sauce but we're still working hard.  We have a lot of stuff we're going to try this week, hopefully we can teach them all soon. 

We did have a cool miracle of a referral we received and we were able to call her right away and set up a lesson for this week, so we're excited for that. 

I was reading an article about Elder Jeffery R. Holland and I found a cool quote from his wife, Sister Holland.  She said, "Jeff was always a very good athlete, I especially liked to watch him play basketball.  I admired his ability, and besides that, he had cute legs."

 Just kidding. That is a real quote but it's not the one I wanted to share.  I want to share a scripture found in Isaiah 9:6. It's one of my favorite verses about Jesus Christ.  It says, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."  I love how descriptive each name is and how it explains the many roles Christ has.  I think "Wonderful" is my favorite one because Christ really is just wonderful.  Several times in this past week I have been able to reflect on His birth, life and death and I'm just in awe of Him. Christmas is the best time ever.

Welp, that is all for this week.  I hope all of you have the most splendid Christmas and that you remember our Savior, who is the reason for the season. 

Elder Spangler

Crunchy

BUENOS DIAS to my fellow Christmas celebrators, I hope this week has been a splendid one for you.  Although we spent the large majority of our time in the apartment this week, we still found some neat ways to occupy our time. 

We had a Zoom Zone Conference at the beginning of the week and that was just swell.  We got some really good trainings on how to study well and how to help others feel the Christmas spirit.  The Platt's are wonderful mission leaders, I sure enjoy working with them. 

Elder Baird's uncle thought it would be funny to send him 10 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch with 4 gallons of milk, so we have a lot of cereal right now.  We finished the 4 gallons in like 5 days and we still have 8 boxes left. Oh they're also the Costco boxes so each box has 2 bags. Needless to say, the roof if my mouth has taken a beating. 

Elder Baird has a little basketball hoop that we put on the door and we have a little piece of tape on the floor to mark where you have to shoot from.  We have a ball that is barely smaller than the circumference of the rim, so it's pretty hard to make it in.  We were trying to get two in a row and couldn't do it for like 45 minutes, but then out of nowhere I drained 4 in a row.  We went wild, it was so awesome.  I'm already signed to play for Golden State to become the 3rd Splash Bro. 

Elder Sebresos invented the most delicious treat the other day.  It's a piece of Grandma Sycamore's bread, slightly toasted, with cream cheese frosting and homemade strawberry jam. It's like cheesecake. It's so good, you should try it.

Our friends are doing well.  Arturo and Teresa are still looking good for their baptismal date of January 2nd, so we're really excited about that.  Our friend Emersonn is in the process of trying to get an answer of whether or not he should be baptized, so please keep him in your prayers!  A lot of our ward members have tested positive for COVID, so please keep them in your prayers too. 

I spent some time this week studying what it means to be committed and I found a cool quote from Dale Carnegie. He said, "If you are not in the process of becoming the person you want to be, you are automatically engaged in becoming the person you don’t want to be."  I thought that was an interesting perspective and helped me realize what I needed to change in order to be all in. 

With it being so near to Christmas and everything, I know a lot of you are DYING to send me packages and letters, so here is my address: 

The Barkley #123 

2400 East Lincoln Ave

Anaheim CA 92806

Well this email had a lot of nonsense in it but it's a look into what my life is like. I hope you all have a wonderful week and light the world!

Elder Spangler

Yahtzee

HELLO TO ALL OF MY BIGGEST FANS

This week was pretty cool.  I am currently sitting in my car listening to smooth jazz, just so you know. 

So last week we were supposed to be in quarantine the whole week but thanks to the new CDC guidelines, we got out on Thursday.  We were able to visit some friends and be alive and free in the outside world and it was great. Then on Saturday we got a text from our President informing us that all of Southern California was going back into full quarantine/house arrest for the next 3 weeks.  Needless to say we were disappointed to be in the house again, but we have some good ideas on how to use our time.  We are about to have so many Zoom lessons haha. 

Our friends Teresa and Arturo are doing incredible.  We had a lesson on Friday with Teresa and her family in Mexico over Zoom and it was awesome.  We read the story of Christ getting baptized in Matthew 3 and then invited them all to be baptized on January 2nd and they said yes!  Teresa was so excited, she is honestly one of the most prepared people I have ever met.  Arturo is awesome and he is just a hoot.  He says the most random stuff and a lot of his questions are way out in left field.  He also accepted a baptismal date for January 2nd and is looking good! #miracles.  We also had 4 friends who came to church and Arturo even bore his testimony.  It was so awesome. 

Last night we watched the Christmas devotional and decorated our little Christmas tree that we found in a closet in our apartment.  It really is beginning to listen a lot like Christmas.  I love this time of year, it's just so happy. 

We played Yahtzee last night and Elder Baird scored 501 points.  Then we realized we counted it wrong and he actually only got 397.  It was only his second time ever playing and he got 2 Yahtzees and the bonus points.  Sure was neat. 

Well, that's it for this week.  Feliz Navidad!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Spangler