First Day in Washington

Hola Familila!!!

What a day… Today has honestly been the absolute busiest day yet.  After getting up at 12:30 we’ve been going ever since. Thankfully my card worked in the Mexico city airport. I realized that a few days before we left that I would need it to pay for one of my checked bags.  It was definitely an answer to my prayers. So funny story, after we weighted my bags the lady behind the counter said “That will be 500….pesos. Which is $40 but scared me at first. The day altogether was insane with soooo much travel. Luckily everything went smoothly and no one lost their bags.  Going through security in Mexico City they did search my shoulder bag and flip through the pages of all my books. Leaving Mexico City and seeing all of the lights was crazy! It went on forever!!! In Dallas (which is an incredibly huge airport) our flight gate kept getting changed which made things interesting.  3 or 4 members came up and talked with us which was great.  The flight to Seattle was LONG and uneventful.  Our plane from there to Pasco was a propeller one which was sweet.  We got to walk out onto the tarmac and board it like the president does with stairs. 50 minutes later we were officially in el campo misional!! President Ware, his assistants, and one of the AP’s greeted us when we got off.  President Ware seems really great. We drove from Pasco to Kennewick. Oh btw, no mountains, it is eerie.  Apparently other areas have them so tis okay. In Kennewick we went to the stake  center next to the temple and met the missionaries from Provo. Crazy to think they’ve been out 1/3 as long as we have! We all took a picture by the temple which is very small but very beautiful. After, we went and ate honestly the best meal ever.  It probably was because for 6 weeks prior I had been eating cafeteria food made for 1000 other missionaries but it was delish.  We had a training thing that I very nearly passed out in because of being up for 10000 hours.  Then I had an interview with president Ware and he told me that of the 230 missionaries here, 110 ish speak Spanish and that 2/3 of the baptisms are Latinos.  I cannot wait to FINALLY start serving real people. Being in the CCM was great but I know this is finally the culmination of 18 years of building up. Starting tomorrow at 2 ish, everything gets real. The Ware’s seem great and I can tell he will make a great leader and example for me.  Thanks for all your love and support.  You guys are great!!!

Love,

Elder Spackman

Finally in Washington! (August 28th)

We got an email along with some pictures Thursday from Cody's mission president's wife saying that he made it safely to Washington!

Nicole saw this picture up on the computer screen and said, "He looks soo happy!"

Week 6 (August 25th)

Hola familia!!

Whoa, I cannot believe we leave so soon. Being here has blessed my life forever and I know I have been guided by the Spirit. I never got the other letter so eventually they should make it back to you. Thanks for sending the package! I thought of a few things I need but they´re not urgent. It would be great to have: another small english PMG, I gave mine to Jonathan because they don´t sell them in Mexico, the missionary library in spanish, sheets, my pillow, an sd card reader (apparently they have them on Amozon for cheap you can use that gift card I got from Mrs. Nelsen). What do you think I should do about by English scripture? They kinda look pretty bad after that rainstorm the second day here. I love you all and hope that school is a blast and a half. Make sure Whitney doesn´t go on too many dates...

Being 1/24 done with a mission has already changed my life for the better in so many incredible ways. The spirit truly does work through us and we act as instruments in the hands of God. Yesterday we heard a devotional from Elder Ballard in which he made the remark that each of us need to know when to get out of the way and allow the Spirit to do the true converting of the investigators. I have prayed, pleaded, and felt the Spirit more in the past month and a half than I honestly did ever in my life before. I know that God live and we are His children. Each of us have been given a specific calling and opportunity. As His children he wants and knows what´s best for us. Being a missionary is our absolute only opportunity to work right along with our Savior and Father. Knowing we are watched over allows any times of difficulties to be realized as temporary times of struggle leading to growth. One thing Elder Holland shared in a devotional about missionary work struck me to the core. He said ´´The work we do is a matter of life and death´´. This work is the most important thing on the earth. Alma 27:4 talks about how Ammon watched as the Anti-Nephi-Lehi´s were being killed and it says ´´among those whom they so dearly beloved, and among those who had so dearly beloved them-for they were treated as though they were angels sent from God to save them from everlasting destruction-´´ We are all in this work and it is our responsibility to save these people from a spiritual death. My conviction in the importance of missionary work is stronger at this moment than perhaps I have ever felt anything in all my life. Because I have been given so much, I must do every single possible thing and take every single moment to bring people unto Christ do in a sense be that ´´angel´´ to save people from a spiritual death that Christ has overcome. I love this work and cannot wait to serve the people of Kennewick, Washington. For reasons I don´t understand He has called me there and I accept with humility the opportunity to carry His message. Never forget that because God is our Father in heaven, He will guide, perfect, and strengthen us.  Talk to you soon, from the good old USA.

Love,

Elder Spackman

Surprise Saturday Email and Photos!

Hola!!

Welp, the days here are getting fewer and fewer! We leave on tuesday a las dos de la madrudaga. (2 A.M.). Our plane takes off around 6 A.M. and then it´s off the Dallas. From Dallas we go to Seattle and then Pasco. It´s getting oh so crazy realizing the field is only a few days away. Being here has been incredible but I am very ready to go. The spanish has certainly been improving but there is so much still to come. I cannot believe how great being a missionary is and feeling the spirit so often is such a blessing. Did you get the picture sent on monday from one of the teachers here? I gave her your email and hopefully it made it. We should be able to email again on monday for 1/2 hour-ish. Looking back it still seems like we just got here!!!

This picture is of our District and one our teachers here. I never expected the teachers to be so incredible and I really will miss all the one´s we´ve had so dang much. The peeps in the district from right to left are Front: Elder Woodward (supermodel/football player/big softie) Hermana Williams (just graduated and is heading to Kennewick with us) Hermana Moody (doesn´t talk much but super spiritual smart and good at the piano) Hermana Bittle (DOES NOT STOP LAUGHING) Hermana Allison (basically the second district leader) Hermano Tapai (one of the nicest guys in all of Mexico) Elder Davison (my companion and the spiritual giant) Elder Spackman (guy with the strang foot...) Back Row: Elder Poulter (from SLC and a great example of hard work) Elder Watson (crazy smart and likes to ´´pray so fervently it looks like he´s sleeping´´) Elder Watkins (the district leader from Kaysville and honestly the 2nd Spencer in all the ways possible) Elder Hales (crazy nice and very into robotics) Elder Mercado (the only name our teachers can actually say easily).

The other guy in this picture is Hermano Soto´s cousin and Elder Davison and I have been able to teach him a few times. It was during one of these I really felt like a missionary for the first time and the spirit was extremely strong. The three of us have become really good friends and he´s an amazing example to both of us. He´s also possibly going to BYU in a few years so that´s exciting as well. Getting to know and teaching him has really been one of the foremost spiritual experiences I´ve had.

Week 5 (August 19th)

One week left?? How many tears has that brought Justin and Steven? Wow, that´s insane Dad´s the ward clerk! Even though he´ll be busy, I know the Lord will bless you guys and plus, you´ll see him way more than you get to see me! ;) Being a missionary is so great and I can hardly wait these next few days till we fly off to Washington. I love you all and Love serving the Lord con todo mi corazon!! BTW I think I´ll get to email on Saturday before we leave but no guarantees.

  

We had a district discussion and Hermana Allison in our district made an incredible observation about the Book of Mormon. She said that ´´All of the things we teach investigators they can find out the truthfulness of many of them for themselves in the Book of Mormon´´. I´ve really grown to love the scriptures and one of my favorite things to do is to read in Spanish. It´s tough but I learn so much and can by now get a lot of the meaning.

Teaching in Spanish is getting more and more natural and a few times this week I´ve felt words come to my mind that amazed me! It´s the toughest thing I´ve ever done but as soon as I trusted in the Lord and stopped worrying about my innaquecies I noticed his Spirit blessing my even more. With the help of the Lord all things are impossible and no matter how tough those first few weeks are, as the Lord for help and I promise with all my hear he will bless you! The progress is incredible, especially in understanding what people say, even if I have no idea how to reply.

One of our teachers gave us his testimony on missionary work and it really touched me. He said ´´This is the one time in your life where you have the chance for the Savior to take you by the hand and guide you along His divine path so you may bring others unto him. Please do not waste a second of his time´´. It really hit home to me this week how important this work is and how blessed we are to be doing it.

On sunday we watched a devotional from Elder Holland where he stressed again the importance of missionary work. My favorite quote was ´´You are God´s answer and the Hope of Israel in these the last days´´. The closing song was I´ll Go Where You Want Me to Go. During it I felt so much peace about the worries I had that I nearly starting crying because of how great it felt. (notice the nearly... ;)) We also watched a video about Joseph Smith and the reality of his incredible work was really testified to me.

Living the missionary life is incredible and I have loved the CCM. Everyone here is so incredible nice and the teachers are amazing. The other Elder´s and I always give our teacher an embrasado after class and the Hermana say they´re jealous they can´t hung Hermano Soto too. He is so great and has taught us so much.

Love, para siempre, 

Elder Spackman

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...)

Week 3

Sorry the last post was so late! This is the letter from August 5th.

Hola Familia y Amigos!!

Life in the CCM is going great. Being a missionary 24/7 is incredible taxing but I enjoy it so much more than I could have ever expected. This week has flown by, and we realized on Sunday that today marks the halfway point of our experience in the CCM. Serving, learning, and teaching fill up the day from 6:30 to 10:30 and I wouldn´t have it absolutley any other way! I have felt the spirit so many times testify to me of the truthfullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the incredible power of the atonement or in Spanish la Expiacion de Jesucristo. Representing my Savior for two years is my absolute desire and serving Him has brought a joy and peace that I have never before experienced.

So a quick overview of our day in case you´re interested: We wake up and head to the classroom for study and then head to breakfast. After that we go to gym which usually consists of intense games of handball with the other districts in our Rama (branch). After gym we head to class where we have language study, doctrinal instruction, and progressive investigator which is where we teach our teacher. The afternoon is a repeat of the morning with a different teacher and then in the evenings we have some personal study and do TALL which is a language program developed by BYU. Our teachers here are the bomb and we love joking around with them!

We had the incredible experience to teach Hermano Soto´s cousin who while a member is struggling through a divorce and feels like God hasn´t answered any of his questions. It was amazing because it wasn´t just one of our teachers we were really helping him. We talked with him about the healing power of the atonement and how much God really does love him. He starting crying as he talked about how much he loved his mission and that made Elder Davison and I get emotional as well. It got us both so excited to bless the lives of families and individuals and we definitley grew in our love of the Hispanic people. Afterwords we hugged him and he thanked us so many times for talking with him. Funny story, so I guess Hispanics move their head the opposite way than Americans when then hug so that made for a couple awkward seconds....

We got to go to the temple visitors center today which was great! Driving through Mexico City was insane and I got some sweet pics. I haven´t figured out a way to send them so maybe that´ll have to wait for Kennewick. We found out that the distict we replaced all went to Kennewick and that another district is coming headed to Kennewick in the next couple of weeks...we think! So cool to see all the missionaries here and the hastening of the work! I love being a missionary and cannot wait to get out into the field! Love you all so much!

Love

Elder Spackman 

   

Answers to questions:

To answer your questions about mi compañero here´s some quick facts about him: He´s 20 from Arizona, is a convert with an amazing testimony, has and incredible memory, and a great ability to speak Spanish. 

On p days we usually do laundry and then email, play soccer/handball, buy chookies (mexican chips ahoy which are honestly sent to us from above, they are divine), and clean our Casa.

That´s so awesome that Kelli and Nikki learned how to ride a bike. As for the sugar cut backs, I don´t know how I feel about that cuz they serve Nutella here for breakfast and it's kinda my life blood. 

I love being a missionary and carrying the message of Jesus Christ to the world. Love you all!

(sorry if this emails to short the power went out for a few minutes so that kinda stunk)