Elder Parker Spanbauer: July 2015

Monday, July 27, 2015

Week 20 Vallenar

July 27, 2015

Hi guys! So this week was a good one! We taught a lot and had quite a bit of success! So our last Sunday was not so great because only 34 people showed up at church. That was the lowest amount I ever experienced here in Vallenar. This week however, we had 45 so its going back up and there was like 3 big families that were all sick so we should be having at least 55 people every week. Jonathan came to church for his 3rd time! We were surprised because we called him in the morning to remind him and he didn’t answer so we were a little worried that he wouldn’t show but he did! Honestly, I know Jonathan is going to be baptized but he simply needs to pick a date to get married first. He has every intent to marry his girlfriend but keeps telling us he wants to be economically well off. He also says he wants to go on some awesome honeymoon with his wife but we are trying to tell him that those things can always wait. We are really just waiting and trying to help him set a date to get married. Who knows, it could happen when I’m here or maybe not. We will just have to see. We have also been teaching an investigator named Maximiliano and his girlfriend is a less active member. The thing with him is that they live together.... and the girlfriend named Ivonne has a kid. He is super sick with something so that whenever he goes outside and gets cold..... he will get extremely sick. This complicates things because she won’t go to church without her son but he can’t go so really, she just can’t go right now. Maximiliano told us that he simply wont go without Ivonne so... yeah. We recently had a "Noche de Hogar" with them, which is the same thing as like family home evening. Elder Malan and I made a bunch of American Pancakes to eat with them. Then we shared a quick message with them after. Maximiliano has the desire to be baptized but simply needs to go to church and complete a few other small things first. We have been teaching other people too but they aren’t considered "progressing investigators" yet because they aren’t completing their compromismos. Also, we went to a member’s house this week. (La Familia Tapia) They are like my favorite family in the branch. The dad is a return missionary and they have two of the cutest little kids ever! haha Anyway, they invited us over to eat American Cheeseburgers! I know... my luck! haha The second time I’ve had cheeseburgers here only this time they were amazing! After we taught about the importance of parents in a family and like the responsibilities of the father and the mother in any family. Then Jonathan (The dad) sang us a song with his guitar that he wrote when he was in his mission (Argentina). It was such a cool song and he is an amazing singer. He then shared some amazing Mission experiences with us. We asked him and his wife to be "hermanadores" or "member friends" for our investigator Jonathan and his girlfriend and they accepted. Things just got real;) haha Anyway, that about sums up my week. It sounds like the family is doing well! Glad your back is feeling better dad. Regan, keep hanging out with your friends and enjoy your summer! Rylie, stay out of trouble and don’t be basic! Tori, Happy-freaking birthday Sis!!! Mom, I love you as always and the rest of you as well! Grandma, I hope all is well with you and Richard! I love you all so much! Until next week!

Elder Spanbauer ☺

Vallenar Church Members

Overlooking Vallenar

Elder Malan & Me on P-Day

Elder Malan & Elder Comena

Elder Malan, Elder Comena, and I on P-Day

P-Day Hike

Exploring Caves

Elder Malan

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Week 19 Vallenar

July 21, 2015

Bueno, aun estamos en Vallenar. Mi nuevo compañero llegó el Martes la última semana. Nosotros hemos trabajado mucho esta semana. Estamos consados! jajaja pero estamos felices! Primero, el nombre de mi compañero es Elder Malan de California. El es super bakan! Somos buenos amigos todavia. El es super chistoso tambien. Asi que, tuvimos una buena semana! Enseñamos muchas veces y encontramos a muchas nuevas personas que tal vez esten interasadas. Vamos a ver. Tuvimos una charla con Jonathan y fue genial porque El esta listo para ser bautizado. Simplemente nesecita casarse. Entonces, vamos a ver que pasa con eso. El estaba super animado para su bautismo y ahora poco triste porque ya no sabia que nesecitaba ser casado primero. Vamos a trabajar muy duro con El para Animarse. El aún tiene el deseo pero nesecita fijar una fetcha de matrimonio. Tambien, tuvimos una lección con Maximiliano. La problema con El es que su pareja o polola (girlfriend) no quiere ir a la iglesia. Ella es super buena y ella es miembro todavia sin embargo El no es. Maximiliano no va a venir si ella no llega. Esta situación es super cumplicada. Estamos enseñando a otras personas pero no tengo mucho tiempo para explicar que pasó con cada uno de ellos. Hasta ahora, ellos estan progresando. Somos dedicados y vamos a encontrar a alguien y bautizarles.

Anyway, I’m gonna finish this in English cuz I don’t want my brain to explode hahaha. So Elder Zach Malan. He is such a cool companion! I loved Elder Leon, but I’m very happy with Elder Malan hahaha. His Spanish is soooo good. He is really good at talking to the people as well. It’s a little hard planning by myself but I’m doing it. Yesterday my entire zone traveled to Copiapo to have a conference with Elder Zeballos from the quorum of the 70! It was awesome and I understood like everything! There was like 50 missionaries there and I saw a couple buddies from the MTC! It was such a good experience. Also, after the conference, we had about to hours to wait until the bus arrived to take us back, so Elder Malan, Elder Swett, Elder Carreón and I hopped in a taxi and went to Tierra Amarilla. It was the first sector in the mission for Elder Malan. We went to go see his first mamita. When we got there, she opened the door and just started crying. Elder Malan almost crying... heck, I almost started crying. It was such a cool experience and I didn’t even know them! Elder Swett and Elder Carreón knew that family as well. Apparently, that family like changed Elder Malan in the mission. It was really cool. Then we hurried back to the bus station and arrived just as the bus was leaving. The whole zone was mad at Elder Swett cuz he is the Zone leader and he had all of the tickets haha but we made it!

Today, we went to the same place we went a while ago. The place with all of the trees and caves and stuff to have another BBQ. We had to do some pretty insane things to get there because the rain destroyed the path. We had a really good time. I will send some pictures. Anyway, That about sums up my week. I love you all so much and loved the pictures you sent! I’ll talk to you all next week! Chao!

Elder Spanbauer

Visiting Jilgaro

Log Ride

Cooking "Choripanes"

One of the few green areas in the Antofagasta Mission

Monday, July 13, 2015

Week 18 Vallenar

July 13, 2015

Hey everybody!!! How’s it going? So where do I start.... hmm, well... we had some success this week! We committed Jonathan to Baptism! He is set to have his baptism next month so we will see what happens there. We still have to work with him on a few things but he’s more than ready to be baptized. His testimony has grown soooo much since the first time we talked with him. Also, we met a lot of new people to teach this week. I’m finally comfortable leading all of the lessons and participating a lot in the lessons. It’s amazing to see how the spirit can work through us as missionaries. I would say the hardest thing to do here in Chile is to get the Chileans to commit to something haha. They will tell us one day that "Yeah! I’m going to go to church with you guys!" and the next day they will say, "Nah, I don’t want to". I would say that is the biggest problem we have here haha. We had the opportunity to work with a member se llama "Hermano Carriso". He is by far the coolest old man I’ve ever met. He is an old grandpa in the ward that has the strongest testimony in the world. He always works with us as missionaries and goes with us for like 4 hours to work. He will walk an hour just to deliver an invitation to a family. He is the kind of person I want to be when I’m an old man. So here is the big news.... Elder Leon is leaving me... :( He will be going to Iquique! My new companion will be a gringo! haha and his name is Elder Milan or something like that. I meet him tomorrow. I have to lead my sector now, which is kinda freaky but awesome as well. I’m excited but also really sad... >Oh!!! It rained like.... a ton last night... like the roads were like rivers of water! It was soooo sweet! So yah, for those of you that said it would never rain in my mission.... TOMA!!! hahahaha. Anyway, All is well here. I have to go with Elder Leon to the bus station so until next week! Love you all!!

Elder Spanbauer

Meet Emi, She is the cutest little girl in the world! hahaha

Fam. Dominguez

Rain!!!

Rare Rain Shower in Vallenar

Enjoying the Rain

Monday, July 6, 2015

Week 17 Vallenar

July 6, 2015

So, this week was pretty good and honestly passed by in a blink of an eye!!! We taught several people including Jonathan. So Jonathan is basically ready for baptism but needs to except that President Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of god. He has problems trusting in people. He tells us that he only follows god and no one else. He has prayed about the book of Mormon and knows it’s the word of god. He knows joseph smith was a prophet and knows he translated the book of Mormon. He is what you would call "Orgulloso" I honestly don’t remember the word for that in English so you guys will have to look it up haha. He is super awesome and I think he will be baptized eventually because he showed up to church again! He definitely has the desire to follow Jesus Christ. We will see what happens there. Other than that, we just taught a couple of other people some basic doctrine. The work is really slow here in Vallenar. We have a lot of people that will listen to us but don’t put in the work to know for themselves. That makes things super hard. Today we went to Huasco. It’s a little town off the coast of Chile. There was a huge street fair there today so we all took a bus to check it out. It was sooo cool! It was just streets and more streets of people selling things. Also, super cheap! I imagine it’s kinda like china but with less people and less "ching chong hoing hong" hahaha. Today was super cool. I had to eat mashed potatoes again this week but I had a cold so I didn’t taste anything so it’s all good hahaha. If you guys saw the things I have eaten, you would think I was a totally different person hahahaha. This week we plan to contact random people more and invite some of our investigators to baptism. There is a good chance that next week I could receive a different companion so we will see. Elder Leon has been the best Papito ever! Ill be sad if he leaves but I’m also ready for a change. The mission can be extremely repetitive with the same companion for three months. But if Elder Leon leaves, I have to lead my sector alone for like 2 weeks because my new companion isn’t going to know anyone or anything. I also finish my training this Week!! I will officially be a real missionary! haha anyway, I want to have time to send some pictures so until next week!! Love you all!

Oh, I forgot to say that I got my package last Tuesday when we had our zone conference with president Dalton! I’m so glad I have sweats now! Also, the candy and jerky was a nice surprise. Thanks for the music and camera card! Also, I love the pillowcase! I thought that letter I wrote from when I was in high school was cool cuz it foreshadowed my life! Thank you guys sooo much for everything. Also, we went to the fair today and I bought a couple of things so I might pull a little money out of my other account if I need it later in the month. For right now I’m fine. Anyway, thank you guys soooo much!!! Love you all!

Elder Spanbauer

Elder Leon decided to look under his bed to try and fix it and found a surprise hahaha. His bed was being held up by a couple pieces of wood! We scavenged for wood but couldn’t find any so we used an old window! hahahaha Bien venido a la Misión!

So I took this photo right after Chile won La Copa America!!! haha and my companion was being a butt haha. We didn’t get to watch it but our neighbors were watching it next door in their patio so we heard the whole thing haha. That night was nuts! Cars would drive by honking until about 1 o’clock in the morning haha. It was a good night haha.