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