Elder Parker Spanbauer: Week 3 Santiago MTC

March 31, 2015

Hey guys!!! I cant believe you went to lagoon without me!!! haha but its awesome to here you guys had fun. First off, Elder Taylor´s first name is Steven. Elder Muir just joined our companionship making it a trio.... so that's pretty cool. Elder Muir´s first name is kyle. I love them both to death! Elder Muir is hilarious and Elder Taylor is basically my twin. What´s not to love about that? haha anyway, its been super busy here. The MTC is super stressful at times with all of the work and all of our investigators but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. Last Pday, Elder Taylor and I went to Lider which is there version of a Walmart. We bought a bunch of candy. There is one type of candy in particular that we love. They are soooo good! Even journal worthy haha. They are called Bon o Bons. Its like a mix between a kit kat and a reeses. I've been eating lots of new foods like weird beef stews, green beans, salads, weird types of fish haha. I've had more new foods here than I've tried in my entire life! With every meal they serve fresh baked bread. I've gained like 2 pounds just from that so I have been staying away from the bread. Over all, the food is great. We have to teach investigators everyday and that is super hard considering we don't really know the language yet. Even though it's so hard, I absolutely love teaching. There is something about teaching the gospel that really interests me. I could do this for a living haha. Guess that's why I am on a mission. This last Sunday we had a devotional in which we got to listen to Elder Holland speak to us about missionary work. I have never in my life felt the spirit so strong. The devotionals that we get to listen to here are exclusively for missionaries. You cant find those videos anywhere else. Later that day we got to watch the video about President Thomas S. Monson's life. That was amazing to see how humble he was at such a young age. He was a Bishop over a ward of over 1000 people at age 22!!! Sunday night for FHE we played a game with the Latinos. We had to teach them basic english phrases and they taught us spanish phrases. After that, we had to compete with other north American districts about the spanish phrases and the Latino districts had to compete over the English phrases. I've never had so much fun in my life hahaha. I actually won all 4 times I went up. Even though they were easy phrases, I was still proud of myself hahaha. Today my companions and I are going to go to the mall and shop a bit and then go get empanadas somewhere. That's crazy about Antofagasta! I haven't heard anything about that! It will give me plenty of service opportunities when I get there. I can't believe it's been 3 weeks already! Anyway, it sounds like things are going pretty well at home for the most part. If I want to have time to send pictures I gotta wrap things up. I love and miss you guys so much! Mom, I love you and you are in my prayers. I hope you get better. Dad, I love you too. I miss hearing your stupidly funny jokes hahahaha jk (you're funny). Rylie, I love and miss my middle child buddy. And Regan, even though you use to drive me nuts, I miss and love you so much. Tell Tori I love her.

The pictures I sent are from last Pday. Its cool cuz this is like the only MTC that allows this much freedom. We get 3 hours to go wherever we want really haha. We can hop in a cab and go across town if we want. Its so cool. Elder Taylor and I went to a mall and then to Liders (Walmart) and then bought empanadas. I took a couple pictures of the temple because its literally right behind the MTC. Give me some advice on what kinds of things you guys want to here about because I feel like I'm always running out of things to say. Its so hard to read everyone's email and respond to all of them and at the same time attach and label photos. I have to resize the photos so that i can email them. Its hard to do in an hour haha. Anyway, I love you guys! Until next week.

Elder Spanbauer