Elder Parker Spanbauer

Monday, October 12, 2015

Week 31 Arica

Oct 12, 2015

So this has been my first week here in Arica.... and I have already had some weird experiences but that’s what makes the mission all the more fun! It has been kind of tough because before I got here there was a "Las Acacias A" sector and a "Las Acacias B" sector. Our pension had four elders in it before I came and I was looking forward to it. Apparently now a rule came out that missions cant have more than 200 missionaries so they had to start closing sectors and make two sectors into one. Elder Francis and I have basically two sectors to work in now and now it is just the two of us in the pension. Its kinda lame but I’m happy. As far as the pension.... Uh... its really old. I guess missionaries have been staying in our pension for over 12 years.... so it was a dump when I arrived. We had to spend one morning just cleaning inside of the pension because we had pension inspections. Now the inside is clean but the backyard is a mess. We have a room in the backyard that is just filled with thousands of ties!!! I actually found some cool ones in there. Our pension is famous in the mission... everyone refers to it as the "tie pension". I love it though. Our mamita is amazing!!! She cooks super well and made me empanadas my second day! She is super nice and now I’m in a ward, which is a lot different, but it’s awesome. There are some awesome people in the ward and bishop is super cool. I got here and there are only a few investigators that we have. There is a family named the familia Julca and they are all ready to get baptized but the parents are waiting to get their visa to be married. They are from Peru and dad is a super humble guy. He was hit by a car like 5 months ago and was sent skidding down the street like 30 feet. It caused a little bit of brain damage to the point where we have to talk slowly and sometimes repeat things. I love him and this family so much. We are helping them work towards marriage and eventually baptism. We also have a 10-year-old girl named Mikaela that wants to get baptized and her brother and older sister got baptized recently. Their mom however doesn’t want to be baptized because she believes she is a lost cause. She works in a bar and is like always drunk. What she doesn’t know is that I’m going to baptize her haha. We have a family home evening tonight with them and we are going to talk more about it with them. My companion is good but just has a hard time leading the sector because he has only been here for one cambio (6 weeks). Elder Francis is more of a shy guy so it forces me to be more outgoing and fearless. It truly is my time to sparkle and shine! I’m super good at contacting now, well.... at least I think I am haha. I love talking to strangers!

So my first day here we went to a house and found a drunk man outside sitting on a wooden stool. He looked as if he was praying. My companion tried getting his attention but he just did not budge. Then his wife came walking out drunker than a really drunk person.... oh crap... here we go. She then started telling us that we had to come inside with her and that she wanted to talk to us. We simply said we cant and this made her mad. She then tried grabbing my hand and I quickly pulled a bukalow just barely avoiding her deathly grasp. She then creepily pointed at us and kept saying come in, come in... She would not stop!!! Then she started crying and then started yelling. She kept saying how beautiful we were and started touching my companions face hahahaha. I was trying not to laugh. Then she came up to me and gave me a hug and would not let go. It was crazy!!! We finally said we had to go and took off. I love the mission. Also, a prostitute lady asked me if I was single and then blew kisses at me... Arica is pretty awesome hahahahahaha.

Elder Spanbauer

Dominguez Family

Familia Domingues

Elders from Vallenar

Elders from Vallaner

Vallenar District

Elder Malan and I

Jonathan and Roxanna from Vallaner (Investigators)

Elder Hunter on the bus to Arica

24hr bus ride from Vallenar to Arica

Elder Hunter

Outside view of the new pension in Arica

Inside new pension

Kitchen area

Bedroom

Bathroom

Room out back... Yikes!

Backyard area

The Tie Room

Elder Francis from Utah

Kinda rusty on the selfies

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Week 30 Arica

Oct 6, 2015

So.... Yes, I got transferred to..... (Drum role).... Arica! My sector is called "Las Acacias" Elder Austin Francis is my new companion and he is from Utah. I still don’t know him super well considering we met like 2 hours ago so there’s that haha. So for those of you who don’t know, Arica and Vallenar are the two limits of the mission. I basically went from the southernmost part of the mission to the northernmost part. It was a 24-hour bus ride and it was TERRIBLE. I didn’t sleep and they didn’t give us food so I basically starved to death. Elder Hunter was with me the entire trip and he was my district leader in Vallenar and will be my district leader here in Arica. There is like no green here which is a huge change but the weather seems all right. It’s kinda cloudy today. I was super hard saying goodbye to all of the people and Elders in my first sector but the lord needs me here in Arica. I’m excited to start the work here and just a funny thing... Elder Muir (my MTC companion) was here right before I got here which was funny because he wants so badly to be companions again. Maybe in the future. This email is going to be short because I gotta unpack and meet the mamita here. I have not received my package and probably wont for another two or three weeks. All is well here and I love you all!

Elder Spanbauer

Transferred to Arica Chile with Elder Austin Francis from Utah

Monday, September 28, 2015

Week 29 Vallenar

Sept 28, 2015

La mejor Misión Del Mundo! Hola De Vallenar!

So this week had some pretty good highlights. To start, my companion felt a lot better this week so we actually got to work! Finally! I was so bored in the pension. Good news is that I’m getting close to finishing the book of Mormon in Spanish! I remember when I first got here I could read the scriptures and not understand a single thing and now I can understand just about all of it. I am amazed at how much progress I have made. So we witnessed a miracle this week. Remember Jonathan? He’s the crazy alien guy and the one who basically just fell off the deep end with all of the symbols and stuff. Anyway, we had stopped passing by for like a month and then one night we receive a call from him and he says to come over to his house. We went and he basically said that he missed us and wanted to continue with the lessons. We had an AMAZING lesson with him. The spirit was so strong and we talked about the basics. We talked about the book of Mormon and how everything leans on the book. We basically said that all he has to do is pray and find out if the book of Mormon is the word of god and if it is, that means joseph smith was a prophet of god.... etc. During the lesson, Jonathan was randomly looking in the back of the book of Mormon and randomly came across a scripture reference and it was the same scripture you send me through email dad! The one in 2nd Nephi 28:30 about how we learn line upon line, precept upon precept and how we cant just obtain all of the knowledge at once. Jonathan loved this scripture and I know the spirit was present in that lesson. We taught soooo well! He said he shouldn’t have believed in random stuff on the Internet and he wants to start going to church! He’s back baby! We also had another lesson with him and his girlfriend for the first time! We taught her the first lesson and she said she is gonna read and pray. I truly believe they will be married and baptized now. It’s just a matter of when. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to experience this miracle. The lord works in mysterious ways. So as some of you know, next Saturday they call us for cambios (transfers) and there is a good chance that I am leaving but now I want to stay! We have so many people that are so close to baptism. However, I will go where the lord sends me. So.... what else.... Oh! I gave a talk about prayer in sacrament yesterday and that was super cool. I had no trouble speaking and many people complimented me, which felt good. Elder Malan and I also explored more of the "Cavancha" (the outer part of the sector) and we had to cross the freeway so we crawled through a storm drain to do so hahahaha. We have just been working hard and trying to set baptismal dates with people. That’s about all... oh and apparently there has been a bunch of small earthquakes nearby but I slept through one and the others weren’t that strong. That’s about it everyone, Love you all! Cuídense!

Elder Spanbauer

Missionary Bike

Elder Malan

Officially Legal

Desierto Florido

Owl

La Cavancha

Famous Chilean Dish "Casuela"

Streets of Vallenar

Old Catholic Church in Downtown Vallenar

Dangerous Bridge


This is the tunnel that we had to cross through hahaha

Meet the people who feed us everyday! Mamita y Papito

Monday, September 21, 2015

Week 28 Vallenar

Sept 21, 2015

Hello everyone!!! So first off, YES, There was a big earthquake here and YES, I did feel it. The crazy part was that it wasn’t very close to us but it was still pretty strong. It lasted for at least a solid minute, which was very odd. I was in my bed and so was my companion and then we heard a loud noise. We knew it was just another earthquake but then it got stronger and the bed started moving like crazy! I jumped off the top bunk and Elder Malan yelled "Yup, time to go!" haha. We stood outside and the earth continued to shake. It was soooo cool. I barely made it out alive.... It was close hahaha. Its super sad that some people died from it though. Its because a lot of Chileans live in houses made of mud and hay. These houses don’t stand a chance against earthquakes.

So as you guys know, or maybe you didn’t, this week was a pretty big week here in Chile. The 18th of Septiembre is basically one of the biggest days of the year. The best part was that we did absolutely nothing! You see, my companion Elder Malan decided to get super sick so we missed the 16-20. He got some sort of stomach virus and it got so bad to the point that we almost took him to the hospital. IT WAS BAD. I basically spent a week in the pension taking care of my companion and doing well... nothing. It was probably one of the most boring weeks ever. Sorry to break it to you guys. Also, as far as baptizing this cambio... I’m not sure its gonna happen this cambio because we have no one with enough church attendance to get baptized. That doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop working hard though! I can still do a lot of good here and I intend on finding more future investigators and families before the lord puts me somewhere else. Also, it is possible that I could stay another cambio so we will see. Anyway, not much else to report this week. I’m gonna send some pictures of the one activity we did get to participate in. Love you all! Until next week!