Week 14 Vallenar

June 15, 2015

Hola Familia Y Amigos,

Esta Semana fue bacan! Encontramos y Enseñamos a muchas personas! Usamos la carpeta de Área para encontrar antiguos de los otros misioneros antes. Enseñamos a una mujer se llama Doris Cordoba. Ella es muy receptiva y le gustó la lección que nosotros tuvimos con ella. Le enseñamos como orar. Ella no quería orar para terminar la lección. Fue muy chistoso! Escribimos los pasos para orar y ella lo hizo. Últimamente, Yo creo que ella va a ser bautizado en el futuro. No se cuando exactamente pero va a pasar! No puedo Esperar!!!!! Enseñamos a Nicanor y el tampoco no sabe como orar. Estamos trabajando con el para ayudarle como leer y como orar. El es muy tímido. Cuando El ora, no es en voz alta entonces necesitamos enseñarle como nosotros oramos. Enseñamos a muchas otras personas pero no tengo mucho tiempo para explicar cada lección con cada uno de ellos. También, yo tenía que discursar en la reunión sacramental ayer! Tenía que hablar por 15 minutos en Español! Yo oré antes de la reunión y cuando estaba hablando, tenía miedo. Estaba tranquilo. Cuan gran es la oración!!!

Anyway, time for you guys to use Google translate! haha. I will help you guys out, the word "Bacan" means "awesome" haha. So this week was awesome. We had a lot of success as far as teaching. We taught a lot of people that normally don’t let us in the house. We taught several people how to pray which was awesome. One man named Eloy Cortez absolutely did not want to pray haha. We just sat there until he offered the prayer. It was too funny but he needed to be forced to do it haha. Elder Leon wrote down the steps to praying so that he could do it. It was such a cool experience. I think at times we forget how amazing prayer is. Growing up in the church it was always something that we did. Like a habit almost. When coming to a place like this where some people have never prayed in their lives.... that is a humbling experience. We definitely take prayer for granted in the United States. Yesterday I had to speak in sacrament about the gospel of Jesus Christ or lesson 3 for missionaries. It was sooo cool because I didn’t have much of a plan going into it because I thought it only had to speak for like 10 min. max and when I got up there to speak, they said 15 minutes.... I was like.... uhhhh.... okkaayyy. Anyway, I was able to speak freely what I wanted to say. It was sooo cool. Everyone after told me that they understood everything I said and that it was an awesome talk. They all know me as "Elder SpiderMan" because no one can pronounce my name haha. It was a really cool experience. Also, today for P-day we went to this place above Vallenar where there is a lot of trees and caves and we had like a little BBQ thing with the zone leaders and a member from there sector. It was sooo cool! As some might know, right now the "Copa América" is being played in Chile. Chile of course is going to win haha jk but President Dalton gave all the missionaries permission to watch it today and Friday if we are with an investigator while watching it. Elder Leon and I don’t really have a set plan as of right now to watch it but we are going to try and arrange something. Anyway, That about sums up my week. I Love you all and I’ll talk to ya next week!

Here are some answers to some of your questions…

So I FINALLY GOT THE FIRST PACKAGE! I was so excited to have different cereal. There is like 3 types of cereal here and it gets really old super fast. I loved the candy and jerky especially. Also, one thing about books here in the mission that you should know. We can’t read anything that isn’t in the missionary library. So basically nothing. I have every book that I’m aloud to read. I’m kinda bummed because it looks like an awesome book but my zone leader said straight up NO haha. Sorry guys:( Anyway, I was shocked to see how big the box was. Normally the missionaries receive little shoe boxes full of stuff so they were all telling me I had to share with the whole zone hahaha. Thanks guys so much. 

Spanish update: 

I’m finally starting to understand a lot more. There is still a lot that I don’t get but for the most part I understand most conversations by context. I’m praying a lot for the gift of tongues and I can see the results everyday. 

Sad news: Elder Taylor (my companion in the MTC) went home like in the first couple of weeks because he tore his ACL in the mission. super sad :(

Investigator Update: We have been working with all of our investigators towards baptism but as of right now, none of them are ready for baptism or are almost ready for the invitation. I’m not totally sure if Nicanor is going to be baptized soon because he hasn’t been coming to church so we will see what happens there. I have intercambios this week and one of the zone leaders is going to come to my zone and I have to lead him around for the day so that is going to be interesting.

Anyway, I love you guys a ton and I’m going to send some photos from our adventure this morning.  

Elder Spanbauer "Elder Spiderman"

#dontbebasic

Week 13 Vallenar

June 8, 2015

Hola Familia y Amigos! Esta Semana fue muy rapido! No puedo creer que hoy es Lunes! Honestamente, no paso mucho esta semana. No pudimos enseñar a Nicanor ni a Julio y Tamara (Familia del niño que morrió) Okay, I’m exhausted... no more español haha. This week has been really cold. I know, weird right? You would think that the driest desert in the world would always be hot but it’s freezing in the mornings and at night. This week we didn’t get to teach much to our investigators because all of them were busy. Yesterday however was pretty cool. We went to church which is always fun and after church we took the sacrament to hermana Nora and she was soooo grateful. She is the sweetest old lady ever haha. After that we ate lunch (Almuerzo) con la Familia Alcayaga. I was looking forward to this because we always eat good with them. Not only that, we ate with the other missionaries from the other sector. It was a fiesta! We ate chicken with rice, another random hot dog and this stuff called ´´pebre´´. It’s basically equivalent to salsa en los Estados Unidos. It is like my favorite thing here so I put together a plan to take it home with us. I asked the family if I could buy it from them and they kind of took it like I was joking and then I said ´´pero, en serio´´ and then things got real. She told me that I could have whatever is left over after lunch! My plan was a success! We also ate with a different family during the week and they are from Columbia. They invited us over to have hamburgers! I was so excited to have American food! Honestly, the hamburgers weren’t amazing but I was so grateful! Guess what, I put avocado on it and tomato’s and lettuce, onions, and a tiny bit of mayo! Take that Family! haha. Oh that reminds me, One day we ate with the mamita and she served us a mountain of mashed potatos with a tiny bit of meat on top. I thought I was going to die. I literally had to pray to finish that meal. I promise that our prayers are answered because I did it!!! Wahoooo!!!! Anyway, with all jokes aside, yesterday we talked to many people and have some new people we can teach. We also had a lesson with a family in the rama (ward) and I lead the lesson! We talked about ´´La Fe´´ and when I said we were going to talk about faith they all kind of looked at us weird like... we already know what faith is. After that, we taught them what faith really is and we totally caught them off guard. The spirit was so strong and for the lack of how to put this... it was like a spiritual smack in the face! It was awesome and there was a less active member present in the room too so that was cool! Anyway, that was my week. Love you guys! Until next week!

Elder Spanbauer 

Otras Cosas:

So Elder Wallace’s eyes are fake. he was wearing contacts. I didn’t say anything about it because I wanted to see what you guys would say hahaha.

Spanish update: I’m understanding a lot more and imp starting to be more involved in lessons. There are some people that I simply don’t understand though haha.

Package: I get my package for sure tomorrow. Can’t wait!

Investigators: Unfortunately we didn’t get to teach Nicanor or really anyone this week so we are going to push back his baptismal date. We don’t know when yet. We meet with Maria Araya today. She is the woman that lost her husband because her son killed him. The family that lost their child is doing better. They are looking for a different house right now because they don’t want to live in their current house. too many memories. We are trying to be patient with them and I think me might meet with them tonight.

Anyway, I Love you all! Have fun camping and stay out of Trouble!

Elder Spanbauer

Overlooking The City of Vallenar

Nephi!!! I will go and do the things that the lord has commanded!

We thought this statue looked like Nephi

Pebre (it's like Salsa)

Snack Food

Random Street in Vallenar

Week 12 Vallenar

June 1, 2015

So..... yeah, this week has been kind of a rollercoaster. To start off, we have two investigators se llaman Julio Y Tamara. Ellos son dificiles para enseñar. Or, for you noobs out there. They are difficult to teach! Julio doesn’t read, go to church... nada! Tamara is kind of easy going and does her own thing. They pretty much just have us over to talk and have a conversation. This week, the unexpected happened... They have a 2-year-old boy named Ian that got sick and died all within the span of 1.5 days. They took him to the hospital and the doctor said there was nothing wrong so they took him home and he died the next morning. I was literally sitting in a room with all of them 2 days prior to this all taking place. I was not prepared for this... They had an open casket funeral type thing and we went. I cannot put into words how sad this was for me. I have never seen a dead child before. This struck me so hard. Julio went straight back to drugs to cope with the pain and Tamara is a mess. Now we are going to focus in the plan of salvation with them and teach how families are eternal. So apart from all of this, we had intercambios esta semana con los lideres de zona. This is basically when I go with the zone leaders for a day and someone goes with my companion. Elder Swett is one of our zone leaders and I spent the day with him in his sector. It was so awesome because he is a gringo! FINALMENTE! haha I was able to tell him what I wanted in English when I couldn’t in Spanish. He is such a good leader and his Spanish, even better. He told me to never touch my English scriptures again. He said that’s how I’m going to learn. I spent the night in there pension and they don’t have gas so I took a freezing cold shower. Overall, it was a great experience! We also had a lesson with one of our other investigators. His name is Lino. He is one of the hardest people to teach because the last time we taught him, we brought a member from the ward to help us and he is awesome. The member we brought is the coolest old man I’ve ever met. Anyway, we were teaching and Hermano Carriso (el miembro) was literally pouring out his soul to Lino, testifying of joseph smith and everything and at the end of it, Hermano Lino simply asks ´´Galletas?´´ while handing us a plate of cookies.... I’m not sure if he just doesn’t listen or what but man.... how? I felt the spirit soooo strong and none of it touched the heart of this man. ANYWAY, we taught him the other night again but just Elder Leon and I and it was amazing. We read 3 Nephi 11 with him and it was awesome. He asked really good questions, and we were able to teach it to him in an easy way so that he could understand. I bore my testimony after and I literally don’t even know what I said. I was literally led by the spirit and I felt invincible hahaha. The spirit is real, the gift of tongues is real! The mission is truly something else. Something incredible. Until next week! Love you all!

Elder Spanbauer

Zone Leader Elder Wallace

Elder Wallace

Evan Fister

Zone Leader Elder Swett

The note I got after intercambios... Elder Wallace you suck Hahahaha

Week 11 Vallenar

May 25, 2015

Okay, where do I start? So honestly, this week was really stressful. I am in week 6 now and I have a ton more responsibilities. I have to carry the cell phone, make and receive calls. I have to always be the person that initiates conversations at the doors of houses. It’s funny because sometimes when we just want to knock on a random door but don’t know what to say, we simply do this. "Hola, Buenas! Estamos buscando por Maria Araya... Conoce a ella?" (Translated for you noobs out there) Hello, good afternoon, night, or morning.... we are looking for Maria Araya. Do you happen to know her? Almost always they say no or direct us to a different house haha. It’s so funny. After that we simply say, we are missionaries de la iglesia...etc. After that we ask if we can pass by there house a different day and chilenos hate so say know so almost always say yes even though they don’t want to haha. We definitely take advantage of this. Anyway, it’s really scary to talk to people in a language you hardly know. There are some people I understand really well and others not so much. Last night I was extremely frustrated because I was being forced to do things I thought I couldn’t. The whole walk back to the house I was thinking of how hard this was. When we return the house at night, the first thing we do is plan for the next day. I was expecting Elder Leon to tell me to plan by myself but you know what he did? He said tonight we are going to do something a little different. We are going to have a companionship inventory. This is basically where we take a step back and express things we want to improve ourselves and things the other person needs to do better. Elder Leon basically taught me one of the most inspiring lessons I’ve ever heard in my life. He related my situation to the story of Pedro (Peter) in the bible. In this story, Jesus walks on water. Peter was the only one out of the 12 Apostles that had the faith to step out of the boat. As the winds began to pick up and the waves began to rise, his faith was weakened and he began to sink. Elder Leon said right now, I’m in the boat. He said the only way I’m going to experience miracles and have an extremely successful mission is if I leave the boat. (My comfort zone) I need to put myself out there and NOT BE BASIC like you always tell me dad haha. I will forever remember this lesson. I’m so grateful for my companion Elder Leon. I would be so lost without him. Oh! Another thing, we had a lesson last night with one of our investigators named "Nicanor". He is from Columbia. We invited him to baptism and he said yes!!! There is one problem, we don’t know if he knows how to read... It’s really hard for him to gain a testimony of the book of Mormon if he doesn’t know how to read. We are going to work with him and find a way to help him enter into the waters of baptism either next month or the following. Anyway, that about sums up my week! It’s definitely been a rollercoaster. I love you all!!! Until next week!

Elder Spanbauer

Vallenar

Elder Leon (Trainer)

Week 10 Vallenar

May 18, 2015

So this week was pretty eventful haha. We have had so many service projects this week in downtown Vallenar. I love doing service because its a break from walking allllll day and everyday. The service we did was boxing a bunch of food and necessities like toilet paper, dish soap, and just a ton of stuff like that. I also get to see everyone in the zone at the service projects so that’s fun. This week was awesome because I was able to communicate with my companion really well. I don’t know why, but my Spanish like improved over night. I’m not saying my Spanish is amazing but I can voice just about anything I need to say through actions or examples. I know the lord is helping me with the language. So we visited this elderly woman and I went in to give her a handshake and she grabbed me and KISSED me!!! (On the cheek) YUCK! HAHA. Its normal to greet people like that here but I was not prepared for that. Also, when we left her house, we were walking on the sidewalk and out of nowhere; a dog came up behind me and bit me!!! That’s right..... It BIT ME!!! En serio??? It ripped a hole in my pants haha. So that was an eventful night. This week my companion hasn’t been helping me plan at all. He wants me to learn how so that is stressful at times. So far I have done a pretty good job with it. We haven’t had the chance to teach the lady that I talked about last time because of all of the service projects. We visited a lot of less active members this week and most of them don’t even live where it says. We taught a homeless man in the street. Also, this week I was supposed to teach priesthood at church!!! I prepared a lesson and everything and I was ready to go and when we got there, they were like ´´Today Elder Spanbauer is going to teach us about chapter 10 in this book...´´ (I don’t remember the name of the book) I was like..... uhhhh..... I had no idea I was supposed to teach out of that book haha so I didn’t teach. Pucha! (darn) We also delivered the sacrament to a sweet little old woman. She was so grateful. Simple things like that are awesome experiences. I’m starting to be a little more involved in things like conversations at the door, lessons...etc. Anyway, that about sums up this week! Until next week everybody!!! Chao!

So not much new on our investigators. We had a lot of service projects this week so not a whole lot of time to teach. I believe the son of the woman who lost her husband is in prison. We haven’t taught her since the last time. Because there is no man living in her house, we have to have a member from the church come with us each time to teach her. As missionaries, we can’t be in a room alone with a woman. It’s a mission rule. Also, the picture of the spider that I had is gone along with all my other photos... but its okay, I’m sure there will be other spider’s hahahaha. I haven’t got the package!!! This sucks.... anyway, sounds like things are pretty okay at home. I hope mom feels better. Anyway, I love you all! Tell mom I love her and the girls. I gotta run.

Elder Spanbauer

Railroad Tracks Behind our House

Vallenar at Dawn

Breakfast of Champions!!!

Our Pension (House)

Our Backyard

Elder Leon Cleaning up

Our House is the Green One

Some people live like this, it's so sad. No roof over their heads

Random Graffiti Art

Downtown Vallenar

Vallenar at Dusk

Week 9 Vallenar

May 12, 2015

Hey Family and Friends!!! I know I had the opportunity to Skype you guys this week and not much has changed since but there was a couple of things I forgot to say. So yesterday, a future investigator that we had been passing by her house for like 2 weeks straight was finally home! Her name is Maria. She is a single mom right now. Her son actually killed her husband. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.... its so sad. I know this gospel can help her and I can’t wait to teach her tomorrow! She seemed really receptive to our message! I really hope we can help her. Also, you know how I was told there isn’t any ´´creepy crawlers´´ here in Chile. THAT WAS A LIE!!! haha yesterday we found a HUGE spider in our house..... (ill send a pic) I don’t know how I am going to sleep! also, this week we did a ton of service projects for the church. That was fun because we got to play a lot of volleyball in-between truckloads. President Dalton and his wife visited Vallenar this week!! We had a conference with him and all the members here in Vallenar! Also, yesterday he interviewed everyone. He told me something that really touched me. He said... only through perfect obedience comes miracles. He told me that if I am following every single mission rule and commandment perfectly, only then I can honestly pray to my heavenly father and say that I have done all that I can. This was super powerful for me because I have been struggling with the language. If I am perfectly obedient, I know god will help me. So I know you guys think my Spanish is pretty good but that’s not true haha. I am definitely better than I was two months ago and I know I only have 2 weeks in the field. I have to keep reminding myself that. I know enough Spanish to get by right now. Let me tell you, having a Latino companion is such a blessing. I have learned more Spanish in these two weeks than in my 2 years of high school and mtc combined!!! The gift of tongues is real my friends. Today we are having a BBQ with some of the other elders and I think we are gonna play some sports! I can’t wait. Anyway, until next week!!! 

Also, I didn't get your package mom. I think I get it Wednesday from my district leaders. elder Leon is easy to live with. He is not really serious all the time, just when we study and teach. He is a good guy. Anyway, I gotta wrap things up. I love you guys so much and it was so awesome i got to talk to you guys via Skype!!! I honestly don't know what to do as far as pictures, my camera is saying it cant read any of the cards that I put in it now. I'll mess with it a little and let you guys know. 

Elder Spanbauer

Mother's Day Skype Call

Week 8 Vallenar

May 4th, 2015

Hello everyone!!!! Como Estan? Things down here are amazing!!! The missionary life is sooo awesome! It is a ton of work but its so rewarding. Okay, where should I begin? So much has happened. So first off, we are struggling to find new investigators to teach so we have been visiting many less active families. Vallenar is a pretty good sized little city and we live pretty far from everyone else. We probably walk about 10 to 15 miles a day. Uphill and then down hill. Its exhausting but its so fun. We have been visiting with the Dominguez family. They are all members and had become less active. We taught them this last week and invited them to church and they came!!!! They are the most humble family I have ever met. They have a little girl that is 3 years old ´´mas o menos´´ and she is the cutest little thing hahaha. I'm really starting to get to know the people in the Rama which makes it more fun. I'm not just saying this because I feel I have to.... The people here are amazing. So a typical day for me is like this.... we wake up, then we work out for about 30min and then eat breakfast. My breakfast consists of a bowl of cereal with crushed oreos in it haha. Its so good so don't judge me. Then we shower and get ready for the day. We then have one hour of personal study and after that we go work for an hour. After that, we return to the house to study for two hours as a companionship. Next, we go eat at our mamitas house. The food she prepares is usually some type of soup with who knows what is in it haha. Its usually pretty good though. Then she gives us a salad. Now in Chile, salad is different than a typical salad in America. A salad can be raw potatoes smothered in mayo or simply tomatoes and onions chopped up in a bowl. Then after that, we eat the main course. It is usually rice and some type of meat. For example, today we had salmon!!! Ive eaten some pretty crazy meals but I always finish them because the people here don't have much and its a courtesy thing. Yesterday, I ate a whole potato!!! hahaha. Anyway, that's enough about food. After lunch we get one hour to study the language. After Language study, We work from about 4 to 10 at night. When I say ´´work´´, it simply means contacting, teaching, lots of walking...ect. haha. Then we plan before bed for the next day. On Pday, things are different. We wake up and go to the chapel in downtown Vallenar to play volleyball for a couple hours with a bunch of other elders. There are a lot of gringos in this area haha. Oh!!! the other day we were on our way to an appointment and there was a guy in the street with BLOOD all over his face. As we walked past him, he grinned at us. Elder Leon just kept walking and pretended like it was normal. Elder Leon is an interesting character. He is serious when he needs to be and super funny also. He literally doesn't know a lick of English so its really stressful at times but he has soooo much patience with me which I love. Next weekend president Dalton is coming to Vallenar to teach and interview us so that's cool. Oh, yesterday, Elder Leon and I were sitting looking over Vallenar for like 5min because our feet were dead and a guy walked up to us. Elder Leon was on the phone with another elder so I was like freaking out haha. Anyway, I was able to hold a conversation with him until Elder Leon got off the phone! The mans Spanish was really.... well..... Chilean haha so it was hard to understand him but I did it! Anyway, he wanted to know more about the church so we told him about it and he said that the missionaries could teach him more! He doesn't live in our sector so we don't get to teach him but either way, hes my contact hahaha. Anyway, that's about all I have time to write about now, Until next week!!!

Elder Spanbauer