Week 82 Antofagasta

Oct 3, 2016

Hey everyone,

So as far as numbers go... this week wasn’t that great compared to last week but, a lot happened this week. I did a companion exchange with an Elder from my district to see how he was doing and it was awesome. His name is Elder Soto from Argentina. We taught several people. The cool thing is that Elder Walker (one of my x-companions from the office) is my zone leader so I got to spend the night with them as well and catch up. Our sector sits on the side of a mountain so we are constantly going up and down and it sucks hahaha. We have been working a lot at the top of the mountain because most of the people up top are receptive and live in humble conditions. Also because the elders before never really worked up there. We have had a lot of success in finding new investigators. It is really hard to get Chileans to commit to doing something hahaha. We are teaching an investigator named Julian and he is getting his legal work done to get married and baptized! He will find out tomorrow if he can get married or not. We also participated in a "Mini MTC" activity that was for all the young men in the stake. I was in charge of the "Boise Idaho" mission haha! I got to teach English! I am actually thinking about doing English classes every week to find new investigators. So this was the week of General Conference and it was awesome because I got to see it in English with all my American buddies haha. We had one investigator go named Alejandro and he watched it in English because he understands a lot. He thought it was interesting but it’s hard to know what he´s thinking because he doesn’t really express much emotion haha. I really liked what Elder Nelson said about joy... "Joy is a gift from god for the righteous" and he explained that the world does not offer us joy... but rather temporal pleasures that we often mistake for "Joy". Joy is only obtained by living the principles of the gospel and by understanding the plan of salvation or better said... the plan of happiness. I also liked how Elder Ballard said that "The restoration was not some event that took place in 1820 but that it continues to be unfolded" or something along those lines. We are part of the restoration! We are spreading or "restoring" this great truth to all ends of the earth just as the prophecy says! How great is our calling as members of the church! I learned several things in this conference but those were some of my favorites. Things have been really good here in Antofagasta. We played soccer again today as a zone with President Ferreira on a full sized field. It was super fun but I realized that I’m not in the shape that I used to be hahaha. Anyway, that’s the update for this week! Love you all and until next week! 

Elder Spanbauer

My District

Elder Moraga, Elder Walker and Elder Faúnez