Week 4

Hola!!

That is so crazy school starts soon and even crazier in 2 weeks I´ll be on my way to my home for 2 years. I´m glad to hear you had a good time at Jared´s weeding and even happier to hear you refused free alcohol...

Oh my, being a missionary is honestly the best thing ever. As soon as you can loose yourself in the work, the spirit begins to work within you and miracles truly do happen. The CCM seems to be getting more and more packed with missionaries which is so great! Seeing so many young people ready and willing to serve the Lord is such and inspiration and faith builder for me.

This week´s been really tough but I´ve certainly grown in both my knowledge, patience, and Spanish. The Holy Ghost and bless lives in ways I never imagined before leaving. Teaching is getting easier and easier to rely on the Spirit even if Spanish is still tough. I pray more than I ever had and probably have said more prayers in the past month than I did in my life before combined...

On Sunday probably a third of the missionaries here got hit with food poisoning, including an Hermana from my district and my companion. This meant mySunday was spent in our casa (house) studying. I never thought 12 hours straight of gospel studying could be so enjoyable but I really was able to receive some answers I was looking for. That morning I gave Elder Davison a blessing and later that night I gave one of the Hermanas a blessing because she was afraid of getting sick and missing out on teaching opportunities. It was great to be able to help people and see the results!

So yesterday we had a substitute instructor and it was this intense Hermana. She made us do pushups and crunches and drilled us a ton on verb conjugations. It really made me appreciate Hermano Soto and Tapia cuz they are they are much more fun but can get incredibly spiritual at times as well. I forgot the words but Hermano Soto taught us the Spanish equivalent for swag and awkward!

Serving a mission has brought me more joy and peace than I ever could have imagined. Oh just for a fun fact, Elder Davison and I decided that the most stressful time of the week is trying to get all of the emailing done in an hour...

Spiritual quote from my study this week comes from Jesus the Christ. In it while talking about Jesus as a young man it says ´´He loved and obeyed the truth and therefore was free´´ although the quote is about our perfect example it really struck me as applicable to all of us. As soon as we love God enough to love to obey his will, we become free from so many of the temptations and distractions of the world. I love you all and love serving a mission! Talk to you soon!

Elder Spackman

(p.s. there's a goat just outside the wall that screams every morning just like the one´s on the youtube video...)