Elder Parker Spanbauer: Week 52 Antofagasta

Mar 5, 2016

Wow, this week flew by so fast. Its crazy because time already flies by in the mission but in the office I am convinced it goes twice as fast. I cannot believe I have been in Antofagasta for almost 4 months now. This was a busy week because we had leadership counsel with all of the Zone Leaders. I had to buy all of their bus tickets to get here to Antofagasta. It was a little bit of a battle but I did it. I have gotten super good at multitasking. It’s kind of funny because President will send an email and say I need this and we have to find a way to do it. For example, this week he called me and said "Elder Spanbauer, the Easter initiative card template has come in and I need 30,000 more of them.... oh, and I need them in 2 days". We all started searching nearby printing companies and we found one! He said he could get half of them printed by the time we needed them. In the end, we got all 30,000 to President and he was happy. I love the office adventures hahaha. This week we taught Alan again and his wife. They both said they want to get baptized but they want to prepare themselves a little more first. We are going to put a date with them in the next lesson we have with them so they have a goal to work towards. Also, we did divisions again and I worked with Elder Walker for the day. We taught a 20-year-old kid that is super catholic.... He had a ton of statues in his house and it was hard teaching a lesson with that virgin Marry statue staring at me the whole time... hahaha. We have found several new people to teach as well. Yesterday, just about everyone we talked to was interested in us teaching them. It was cool to see how the lord puts people in our paths. The mission is amazing and I will go to my grave saying the same thing. The lord truly does make weak things strong. I remember when I had first arrived to the mission field it was always about me. What do I want? I am starting to feel some of the same feelings Christ must have felt as he taught and performed miracles here on the earth. I am convinced Jesus Christ was the happiest man that ever lived because true joy, the kind that can’t be extinguished comes from him. There is nothing more powerful than a simple testimony that comes from the heart, or better yet, the soul. I know that my savior lives and I will serve him until the end.

(Mosiah 16:9)

“He is the light and life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened”