Week 13

It's great to hear that everything is going swell back in good ol' Utah! That's awesome you guys were able to go and see ''Meet the Mormons''. Apparently some of the Elders down in Pasco actually have a new investigator who wants to get baptized after seeing the movie because she felt the Spirit so strong while watching it. This week has had some crazy, unique experiences and we've been super busy which is always good. 

On Tuesday I had one of the highlights of my mission thus far. Jaime, our investigator who we've been working with for awhile and is getting ready to be baptized had been making us a little worried. For about a week we hadn't been able to talk with him and he wasn't answering his door. We had been praying a ton for a miracle and we got one! It came that night when we decided to go to Daily Dose, which are the English classes and guess who showed up?! Jaime!! He seemed really excited to see us and in talking with him after he said that he'd been reading the Book of Mormon and hadn't been able to meet with us much because he was working (and sleeping) a ton. He also said that while talking on the phone to his mom in Mexico, he found out that she and his sister were baptized about a year after he left for the states!!! Small world for sure! It was a huge weight off of our shoulder's and it was great to see that the Lord was watching over him. Definitely strengthened my testimony of prayer.

Wednesday was a great one as well since we were able to sit down and have a lesson with Jaime after Daily Dose. It went very well and helped us realize some of the things that we needed to improve on to help strengthen his testimony of the true eternal significance of having the Restored Gospel here on this earth.

Thursday was honestly one of the strangest days us to now on my mission. We had a training down in Kennewick on 2 Nephi 31 and "The Doctrine of Christ". The training itself was great and I was able to gain some insights. We had come down with some of the other Elders who had dropped off their car in the shop thinking that it would be done by the time that we finished the training. One thing led to another and they hadn't even started on it by the time we finished.... We talked with President Ware and he actually had us take his car to go to the shop because as he put it "We're missionaries and people's salvation is at stake if we can't meet with them". So we drove across Tri-Cities, may or may not have gotten a little lost and eventually found the shop. Come to find out that they actually found another problem with it that would take longer to fix. So we headed back to the Stake Center where President Ware was giving a training to the new missionaries. We kinda just waited, waited, and waited until it was finished and then the assistants decided just to drive us home and have the driving coordinator take it up to them. We didn't get back to Othello until 8ish so were only able to get a little bit of actual work in.

Luckily Friday went very well! Even though we had to cancel our appointment with Robert from the day before we still were able to meet with him and actually "pre-qualified'' him for his baptismal interview. If all goes well and the Lord permits it, his baptism should be this Sunday! He's doing great and really loves to read and learn from the scriptures. It's been incredible to see how much light the Gospel can bring into people's lives! We also pre-qualified Jaime and when we asked him if he had committed any serious crimes he told us that he hadn't, "hasta esta hora" (up until now....) Luckily he was just joking around with us. His baptism is being delayed a bit because of how busy he is with work but things are still going great.

The rest of the week went great and our ward mission leader is slowing taking the steps back toward the Savior. He actually asked us yesterday during Sunday school if he could have a Book of Mormon and then a few minutes later randomly left. We were a little worried but in talking with him at his house later that night he actually had left to go take the Book of Mormon to one of his friends in jail. Apparently you can't give books to people in jail. It's been great to see him making an effort to improve and hopefully soon he should be on track to baptizing his daughter.

Love,

Elder Spackman

Week 12

Thursday we taught a lesson to some renters of one the members in our ward. The member is an incredible guy who's been a mission president in Argentina, the branch president here before it was a ward, and just barely got back from being in the temple presidency in Columbia. He probably has one of those general authority profiles on lds.org. Having him there gave a great 3rd witness to what we were teaching and aided the Spirit big time. We went over the Restoration and they seemed like they might be interested in learning more. As we were leaving the mother offered us these things called Pupusa's which are basically a corn tortilla stuffed with different things. These one's just seemed to have beans which I though would be harmless enough until we bit into them. Honestly some of the spiciest stuff I've ever eaten.... I was only able to eat a few bites and luckily she gave it to us as we were headed out and since we didn't try them until we got to the car, I didn't feel obligated to finish them. Later that day we had a lesson with Robert which went great and he still seems really excited for his baptism next week! He actually even has been sharing the gospel a bit with his girlfriend who lives in Spokane!! Funny story, that night as we were walking to try by someone we hear from a dark alley "Elderes, Elderes, como estan!?'' It was a Hispanic lady we had talked with a few weeks ago who isn't a member but has family that is. She asked us if we had eaten dinner yet (it was around8:15) so we said we had but she still insisted on giving us some food. She gave us some salsa stuff and then we talked with her a little bit. She was very friendly but said she's pretty confident in the Catholic church though just loves to talk with the missionaries. Definitely some great people in Othello, member and nonmember alike!

On friday, after weekly planning, we went to a lesson we had scheduled with Jaime but he didn't answer the door. We thought about just breaking down the door and preaching repentance but I don't think that's a section in Preach My Gospel. We were still able to have some lessons with some other investigator which made the night a little better.

Conference was incredible!! So much of it applied to questions that I had been pondering on and wanting to receive answers to. It was also really great that some of the talks were done in the speaker's native tongue and the Spanish ones were awesome to hear!!! Jorg Klebignat's (I have no idea if that spelling is correct...) talk really stood out to me as he helped us better understand the manner set by the Lord in gaining spiritual confidence which is something I've really been trying to gain. His quote about making repentance a lifestyle really hit home as, especially as missionaries, we should be repenting every single day so that we are worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost always. Quentin L. Cook and President Uchtdorf's talks from Priesthood both were great. In his talk Elder Cook gave the thought that "We must rise above rationalization" and it really inspired me to strive to always be diligent in serving the Lord. President Monson's talk on Sunday morning was probably my overall favorite and I felt that so much of it applied to some questions that I had going into Conference.

Sunday morning transfer calls came and it looks like I'll be spending at least another 6 weeks in Othello 4th Spanish Ward + Mixteco!!!! I'm really excited to continue to work with the people of the ward here and the investigators that we have. Life in the pueblito of Othello is really great and it's a blessing to be here, especially with how much Spanish we use!! Being on a mission has blessed my life in ways that I could never imagine and even though I still have a long ways to go, I've already seen some amazing changes in the way I think, study, pray, and act.

Love,

Elder Spackman

Week 11 (September 30th)

This week has for realsies probably been one of the busiest of my life but I've loved it. On Tuesday we did exchanges again so I was up in Warden and had some ''interesting'' experiences with a less active member and may or may not have dropped some kitchen tiles he was having us move outside... That night my companion called us and said that in the first lesson with a new investigator named Robert had accepted a baptismal date!! The English sisters had taught him a little but since he speaks Spanish much better we've taken over. The Lord has definitely been blessing us as we've been striving to do our best for Him.

On Wednesday we got to see the movie ''Meet the Mormon''. President Ware was given a copy and permission to show it to us and it was superb. It's does a profile on six LDS members from around the world and shares their experiences and testimonies. Since we basically live in the middle of no where it was crazy to drive down to Pasco (an actual city and not just a leetle town) to watch the movie. That night we attended a wedding in the bishops office.... A Hispanic couple had contacted him since they had heard that LDS bishops could perform it and he was worried that they wouldn't have witnesses. Luckily they brought some friends but he still asked if we would stay so we got to sit there and watch a wedding. He talked with them a little about who we were and what the Church believed but they live in a different town so ya never know.

Friday was a little rough but ended up being a-ok. Jaime had already kept rescheduling appointments and we were getting a little worried and discouraged since he had such potential and is preparing for baptism in a few weeks. That night we tried again at his house with no luck and were just trying by some potentials when we decided to try by a guy we hadn't seen in a awhile. He let us right in and said he'd been reading from the Book of Mormon and wanted to know how to pray! It definitely raised our spirits.

On Saturday we had a very spiritual lesson with Robert. It is incredible to see just how well the Lord is able to prepare certain, specific people to hear the message of the Restoration. We went over some of the stuff the sisters taught and he was extremely interested and was asking some great questions. Even though I still struggle a lot to express myself and teach in Spanish, the Spirit of the Lord works in some incredible ways.

Sunday was the bomb.com!! Our ward mission leader who'd been struggling came to church and the great ward here embraced and welcomed him with open arms. Crazily enough, there's a family that's been coming to all 3 hours of church for the past month that we haven't even been able to teach. They had kept saying they were too busy during the week so we more or less took them out of SundaySchool and taught them the Restoration. They definitely seem ready and we're excited to begin to teach them.

Yesterday was pretty dang good as well even if on one of the houses we tracted the guy didn't even talk to us... He just shook his head and closed the door. Maybe we didn't smile enough... We had been praying and fasting for about a week that we could re-contact Jaime and blessedly we had a lesson with him. We talked about the importance of daily prayer and scripture study. The member with us bore a powerful testimony of his own conversion story and how prayer confirmed to him the decision to get baptized. Jaime's still doing great and we're excited to keep seeing him grow!!

Today was our temple p-day which is why this email's so late. The temple was great and the peace there was something I needed since my mind had been troubled a ton this past week with various things. It really is such a blessing to be a member of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ and have the opportunity to preach His gospel!!

One of our Zone Leaders recommended a talk called "Learning by the Spirit'' from Elder Bednar and I would definitely re-recommend it. He talks about how vitally important it is to be guided by the Spirit as we study and teach, in the Lords way.

Love,

Elder Spackman

Week 10 (September 22nd)

Sounds like Steven's doing great things and the pic of him and Jensen was great! Thanks as well for the pic of Parker, that's so great that him, Chad, Jesse, and I get to be out serving at the same time. I got the package with the Spanish gospel library and the PMG. You guys are the BEST!

This week has been a crazy one, but it seems like they all are as a missionary! On tuesday President Ware and the assistants gave an incredibly good, and incredibly long, training. President Ware focused on the fact that it is our responsibility to change the way we act, think, and teach to keep up with the Lord's pace of hastening the work. The assistants gave a training on how the mission is switching up weekly planning. Instead of taking 2ish hours, it now takes 5ish hours. Even though it's really, really long apparently they've already seen some great results because of the increase in focus it provides on the investigators. After the training we did exchanges and I headed up to a super tiny town called Warden. 

Warden was quite the place.... Since it's right next to a huge potato plant, the waste from the plant reeks and so every once in awhile throughout the day the town smells terrible but the exchange on a whole was good! We were able to talk with a bunch of new people which was great! While we were talking with a less active guy he asked why I didn't like to speak Spanish, since I hadn't said much. I said I loved speaking it but didn't know how to say much yet. I'm not sure he bought it...

On Friday we had a great lesson with our investigator with an on-date. He's a great guy and whenever I don't want to knock on another door I think of him since we found him when we were tracting about a month ago. We taught him the 10 commandments and the law of tithing. He said tithing might be rough for him because of how little they make and how much he sends home to Mexico but I pray he will see blessings from it!

Sunday, definitely some strange and good experiences to be had for sure.The topic for Sunday School is the Old Testament and I thought it was hard enough in English.... With the entire lesson in Spanish and all the scriptures in it as well, I honestly understood only 40% of what was going on! Yikes... My reading and listening comprehension of Spanish has improved a lot even if speaking is coming slowly but that lesson certainly made me worried! ;) Later that day we were tracting and talked with a Lutheran pastor, someone yelled at us to go away without even opening the door, and helped a less active member put an ambulance door on an RV he was restoring! That night we had a lesson with one of our investigators and he had some great questions about the importance of the Fall.

This week I've really tried to focus on the being guided by the Spirit and turning over all of my desires to the Lord. He really is our Savior and when our desires, words, and actions become like unto His, the things of the world that drag us down (especially when trying to focus on others as a missionary) seem to melt away. Trusting our heart, might, and mind to the Lord allows great things to happen!

Love

Elder Spackman

Week 9 (and pictures!)

 It was great to see Mandy's friend when we were volunteering! Yeah, I definitely miss cross country but being is a missionary is somehow even better. It definitely does take courage to knock on strangers doors and try and have a gospel conversation with them in Spanish but I know the Lord has helped me. No worries about the packages! When/if you send another one, it would be great to have that black running jacket cuz just like Utah, the days are warm and the nights are cool this time of year. No rush on that though, I'm doing great! We're taking small, simple steps with the ward mission leader and hopefully he understands the importance of living his life back on the path of the Savior. We have service once a week at the food bank here and then have other service randomly throughout the week. The apples here are everywhere and they taste great even if they take the people we want to teach away from us as they pick. I'm doing fine with the short sleeve shirts but will definitely need more once spring rolls around. As for the music, we listen to a lot of vocal point/piano guys and Disney because apparently Pres. Ware is a huge fan of it. We don't listen to it but if you want some of the music that the Hispanics here listen to, look up Los Canarios de Michoacan. An incredible missionary song that I think of when time are tough in general is ''The Harvest'' by Brandon Heath, it's the bomb.com. 

This week has really flown by and certainly, as usual, is full of ups and down. On Wednesday we talked with a guy who was just sitting outside watering his lawn by hand and just wanted to talk about Jesus but hopefully we'll be able to talk with him again and have an actual lesson.

Thursday was definitely one of the lows for sure. We helped a member move a piano which wasn't to bad but later we had a lesson with a guy we've talked with a few times and it was rough. We we're teaching the Restoration and when we got to the part about Joseph Smith, E. Kupferer turned to me and I tried to start talking but my mind went completely blank and I couldn't think of any Spanish at all. I ended up just saying it in English because he said he could understand but it still felt off. It really made me down that I dropped the ball on that and I was feeling sick to my stomach the rest of the night. 

Luckily the next day my prayers were answered because it was a great day. We had a lesson with our investigator who has an on date and it went great! We taught him the Doctrine of Christ and he really seemed to enjoy and understand it. It was a polar opposite from the day before and I could feel the phrases coming in Spanish to my mind from the Spirit.  Because of the picking season a ton of the people we work with have work every single day so we were worried he wouldn't be able to come to church very consistently. We asked him if he would talk with his boss about getting Sundays off and he immediately said yes. He definitely want to do whatever it takes to come closer to Christ and follow his commandments. If all goes well, he should be baptized in a few weeks! He's from Guerrero which means we also get to practice some Mixteco with him which is fun as well.

So this weekend we had stake conference and the Zone Leaders called and asked us is we would give a role-play in front of the whole stake.... Well, a few hours later they switched it to a talk so that was fun. Luckily, they were just messing with us and some other Elder's got to have the OPPORTUNITY to do a role play in front of the mission president and an area seventy. The conference was great and we even had our investigator come and he seemed to enjoy it. President Ware challenged all of the members to find one person this week to either give a Book of Mormon to or share your testimony with.

Yesterday after church was one of the strangest days ever. We were walking down in an area called Little Mex, which is basically a giant trailer park with lots and lots of Hispanics and dogs. It was pretty late and we had been tracting when this guy came running up to us. At first we were really surprised since he was talking in English but he said he had a few questions for us. Welp, he said he had watched a few youtube videos about the church and he claimed that the temple has devil symbols on it.... Yeah he told us some other weird stuff and then thanked us for our time and walked out into the night. A tad bit surreal but he seemed grateful to have someone to talk with.

The hand of the Lord is so real and even when experiences are rough he is always there. I've seen incredible changes in my life already and have been able to feel the Spirit in incredible ways. The Atonement of our Savior can not only forgive us but as it says in PMG ''through the Atonement everything unfair about this life can be made right because of Jesus Christ''. There's an incredible talk by Cleon Skousen that talks about the reality and power of the Atonement that we listened to that is extremely powerful, I think it's called, ''The Atonement'', definitely look it up.

''Faithless is he who quits when the road darkens.'' (from a fortune cookie the Zone Leaders got at a restaurant. The road is never completely dark when we trust in the Savior.

Love,

Elder Spackman

Cody finally sent photos! No captions but I'm guessing that the first 10 or 11 were taken in Mexico.

Week 8

Hola Familia!

How's the ever present school going? It is so weird to not be heading to school but I'm learning way more than I probably ever did before, especially in Spanish. Life here in Othello is great but of course can be tough as well. Because so many people are out picking in the afternoon we don't have a ton of people to visit then. So we tract on basically empty streets since everyone's in school or picking. It's tough and long but we just keep going and have certainly seen blessing.

On Thursday, we had a pretty crazy experience. So we were stopping by trying to find an old investigator and found out he moved. As we were walking away suddenly a Mexican guy yells out from the house at us. We go over to talk to him and basically get told the what for. In a nutshell he told us that: the Catholic cross was different than the Christian cross, we were sinning because we were handsome and wore nice clothes, E. Kupferer had more sin than him but I had less so we were ok, we shoudn't look at women or think about drugs, and some other strange stuff.... Halfway through the conversation I began to question if I actually knew Spanish because it was soooo random but he was just a leetle crazy. (and I'm nearly certain he was very, very drunk). As we were about to leave he asked us our names and we told him a he got upset and told us he didn't understand English. Luckily we had a spiritual experience as well with a lesson with a family who had nearly been baptized. They already knew a lot and had been taught a ton so if they will pray, read, and receive an answer we should be great!!

So far we haven't met anyone who only speaks Mixteco although a few days ago we talked with someone who didn't seem to understand even Elder Kupferer so he may have been solo Mixteco.

On Friday we had a zone meeting where the Zone Leaders told us some things had been switched up in the mission. Apparently we are no longer able to wear t-shirts with logos on them for p-day or service. It was a bummer cuz of the BYU shirts and XC ones I've got but I guess rules are rules. That night we taught a lesson with a guy named who let us in while we were tracting. He seemed very receptive butyesterday we went by to talk with him and one of his kids told us he was drunk so we decided to go back later...

Friday was long but great. We got to do some service cleaning up the fairgrounds which was good. (in plain shirts mind you). That afternoon we had a lesson with probably our most promising investigator. We tracted into him a weekish ago and had taught him a lesson already. We taught the Plan of Salvation and is seemed to go very well so we invited him to be baptized on October 4th. I was able to do the invitation in Spanish and thankfully everything I'm pretty sure it was all correct. He said yes but said he didn't want to be baptized the next day so we had to quickly explain that we still had quite a bit of teaching to do still!

Yesterday we were able to have 3 investigators at church which was a blessing for sure! The guy who's on date came and then a family who are really good friends with some member came as well. The family seems really great and apparently already have been having fhe we just haven't been able to have a lesson with them because they were sick a lot of last week.

Talk to you all soon, you are all so great and keep up the good work!!

Love,

Elder Spackman

Week 7

Dear Family!!

How's school going? It's so strange not going to school!! Happy Birthday Nikki!!!!! I'm sure it was great and everyone will have to give her a birthday hug for me. As for the pics, I'll sent the card home once I fill it up and the B on the mountain is for Benemerito, I think for the school of Benemerito de Americanas that the CCM used to be.

Customs went great except that getting back into the states one of the people in our district had trouble with TSA cuz his hair was so much shorter than his passport pic! That's great to hear the kids got great teachers! Tell Justin to keep trucking with the soccer and sleep. As for the scripture I suppose those will work but it'd be great to have some just for as a missionary. Somewhere like in Enos I scribbled some notes out in pen and being the perfectionist that I am it bugs me whenever I would use my old ones. To be honest though, whatever you think works is fine by me!! Oh, I got the package, it was the best and the card made me smile!! 

Ooooo buddy, this week's been insane! The first night here President Ware interviewed us and asked us our concerns. I had said I wanted to speak as much Spanish as possible so that I could learn it quickly to be a better teacher. Well, the next day when he made trainer and area assignments, he called me to Othello spanish ward and Mixteco speaking... That was pretty dang surprising. Mixteco is a language spoken by a group of people who live in the mountains in Gurrero Mexico. It is really strange and the closest written language is Aztec so we don't have any learning or gospel materials in Mixteco... It's been around for forever and predates the conquistadors entering Mexico when everyone learning Spanish so it's nothing at all like Spanish. If you want something similar, listen to Chinese and Japanese mixed. The breakdown of Othello is 10,000 people total with 7,000 who speak Spanish, 2,000 who speak English, and 1,000 who speak Mixteco. A lot of the people we work with speak both Spanish and Mixtecto so learning it is just a way of fellowshiping. My companion is Elder Kupferer and I actually read his blog some before I came! His Spanish is very, very good so that helps me a ton.

Working with the people here is so great and Othello is amazing. To be honest if you want a good picture of it imagine West Valley City (at least the areas we serve in) + Idaho + Mexico. There are so many opportunities to speak Spanish and honestly were almost always in areas where two white guys are in the minority. We only teach in Spanish which is something I had prayed for because of how it will help me learn. It is humbling to go into some of the houses/apartments and see how hard the people work for what they have. The majority of our investigators work in the fields so that means long hours 6-7 days a week. They are all super nice and the member are great as well. Honestly the biggest struggle has been eating everything we get fed. In Mexican culture it's offensive if you don't eat seconds so I've had to pray for an expanded stomach multiple times. The best thing we eat is Carne Asada which is just divine. (it's like meat on corn totillas with rice and is super yummy). The members always give me way more food than I think I can handle but I suppose life could be worse! :) We stay with some members who live on the outside of town and after our old beds and loud noises of the CCM it's been nice. Living in the middle of a corn field makes the whole harvest mission analogy way more meaningful. The fields go on FOREVER!!!


The work here isn't necessarily going super quick but it's about to pick up. In a month ish the picking should be done and people will be home more often. Another thing that will help is our ward mission leader. About 2 years ago he was on fire getting tons of baptisms, reactivation, and working with the missionaries a ton. Apparently he would get home from picking and go right out with the missionaries to work. Well sadly, about a year ago he went through some stuff and has been trying to get his feet back under him. Right now he's on the way up and if we can get him working with us we'll be good because he has a crazy strong testimony and also knows Mixteco. We visited with him and his family my first night here which was apparently the first time he had talked with the missionaries in a while. Since then we've been over every day talking and laughing with him and he even came back to church yesterday which was amazing. Big things are on the horizon for Othello.

These last few days have been crazy with tracting, teaching, realizing I don't know how to speak Spanish anymore, and helping. The Spanish will get there eventually but right know it's got awhile. Oh and getting to learn Mixteco makes things a little more hectic. One thing that's been rough is that I been feeling like I had the flu for a few days but am doing good now. That was no fun and for three days straight I went to bed before 10 which is something that hasn't happened since I was probably 6... Yesterday we had 2 investigators and the ward mission leader come to church which was really great. The bishop had me come up and bear my testimony and I kinda forgot all of the Spanish I learned in the CCM so that was pretty dang rough but tis ok. Life here's been great and I love being able to teach and talk with people even if I forget a ton of the names, especially all of the Jose's... When we first got here I had such a peace and knew that this is exactly the place the Lord needed me to be. I love this gospel and can't wait to teach it more!! Spiritual though o' the week: ''There's no comfort in the growth zone and no growth in the comfort zone'' Being here has really made me realize the truth of that quote, especially tracting in Spanish!

Love,

Elder Spackman