Week 79 Antofagasta

Sept 12, 2016

So this week has been really crazy. We had pretty good numbers and everything but the best part was Sunday. There is a family that we have been working with that FINALLY went to church! The father of the family (Vladimir) is from Brazil and his wife is Chilean and she is an inactive. It is a family of 6 and all of them went to church! They set a goal to get married on Oct. 15th and the dad will get baptized with his two sons on the 22nd of Oct. Hay Bautismo! Also, we have an investigator named Nelson and he too went to church. Him and his wife want to get married and baptized next month!!!! Hay Bautismo! haha. Our sector here in Calama is doing really well. The lame part of it all is that I got transferred... I have been called to serve in Antofagasta again in the "Origenes" ward. When the church started here in Antofagasta, Origenes was the first ward formed. I left this morning around 8am and arrived to Antofa at around 11am. This sector is really big and the city center is in my sector! Antofagasta is like a city built on a hill so my sector is straight up and down. There are some parts where it is really steep and difficult to climb up! I’m going to die hahaha. My new companion is Elder Moraga from Santiago Chile. His first name is Moroni!!! How cool is that??? He is super cool even though I have only known him for a day.... He plays soccer and likes to dance. He mostly just does traditional dances like "La Cueca" for example. I am super excited to meet all the members here. I am actually in the ward where Camille`s father-in-law goes! He is an area seventy! Today I met our mamita and papito (The members that cook for us) and they are soooo cool. I think I’m really going to like this ward. I will continue being district leader but now there are 10 in my district... My zone leaders, 6 sister missionaries, and an elderly couple of missionaries. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone in Calama. I got to know a lot of the members and I feel that leaving a sector is one of the hardest things for a missionary. I’m ready to work hard with Elder Moraga or how a Chilean would say... "Vamos a sacar la mugre!" Love you guys a ton and until next week! 

Elder Spanbauer

Family of our mamita that washed our clothes!

This is the Monte Àbalos family. The dad and two boys are going to get baptized next month!

#TeamCaspana

These two are going to get married and baptized in December!

This is Nelson and his wife... They are planning to get married and baptized next month!

This is GianCarlo... One of my best friends haha

Bishop and Hermana Martinez

My new sector here in Antofagasta... hills and more hills...

Elder Moraga haha

Week 78 Calama

Sept 6. 2016

Sorry for the late update! I just realized I never told you guys I was gonna have Pday this Tuesday instead of Monday. So... sorry haha. This week was pretty good. The sister missionaries in my district have been having a hard time so we did a "district attack" in their sector. It was awesome because I got to work with Elder Childs again. We taught 3 lessons, found a new investigator and set 3 baptismal dates for the sister missionaries. Elder Santos and I had a good week as well. We taught several investigators and all of them said they were going to go to church and they didn’t... NOT A SINGLE ONE.... I guess you could say I’ve had more successful weeks. For the past two days my companion has been sick so we haven’t worked a ton but I was able to have another baptismal interview in Elder Childs`s sector with a 17-year-old girl named Fransisca. She passed the interview so it looks like they will have another baptism the 10th of Sept. Hay Bautismo! Ivan Buston is still progressing but it is really just gonna come down to whether or not he wants to keep the law of chastity. It was lame because he said he was going to go to church but he never showed up. We called him after church and he said his alarm never went off. Today for Pday, we watched Mulan as a zone. It was fun and all but I kind of lost my patience with movies. I think I have ADD hahaha. We also played soccer and volleyball. To top things off, we ate Domino’s Pizza! That is pretty much everything that happened this week... Sorry for the short email... We dont have that much time to write today. I love you all! Till next week!

Oh! I forgot to say that I saw Kermit again! He was visiting bishop`s family this week. He went to church here in Calama and he bore his testimony for the first time ever! He talked about me and everything... it was dope

Elder Spanbauer

Week 77 Calama

Aug 29, 2016
 

Hey everyone, so this week was great! We have been reaching our goals and have been seeing a lot of progress. This week we found 9 new investigators and had 9 lessons with members present. We have been tearing it up! We also had 5 new investigators go to church this Sunday! It is really hard to work with the ward sometimes but we just have to keep trying. It’s possible that they transfer me in about two weeks so we have been working extremely hard to get a baptism before the end of this transfer. Ivan Buston went to a baptism that Elder Childs had and he really liked it but he still isn’t sure if he wants to get baptized. He thinks it will be hard to leave some of his old habits behind. Of the new investigators we found this week... there is a family that is super ready to get baptized. We found them Saturday night and they went to church the next day! We were just walking and I said: "Let`s knock on this door" and so we did and that`s how we found them. Tonight we have an appointment planned with them and we are gonna set a baptismal date. The lame part is I might not be here to see them get baptized if I get transferred but oh well.... I am used to it hahaha. There is another family we found that is gonna get baptized as well. They just need to get married first. They both went to church as well with their two little kids. I have a feeling that there are gonna be a lot of baptisms in the month of Sept. I absolutely love Calama.... and I thought I was going to hate it. The weather is crazy because we freeze to death at night and it is super-hot during the day. I know this is a short letter but I’m just running out of things to say.... You can only say the mission is amazing so many times haha. I will attach some voice recordings! Love you all!

Elder Spanbauer

This was Elder Childs`s baptism and I got to interview these people!

Week 76 Calama

Aug 22, 2016

Hey guys! So this week was a pretty good one. Our numbers were high and we found 9 new investigators! This week we put a goal to find 7 new investigators and we found 9! We walked a lot... talked a lot and it all payed off. We also had a chance to meet with Ivan Buston to see how he is feeling about his baptism and he said he felt really nervous. He told us that he lacks faith. We read some scriptures with him that talk about faith and how he can obtain it. Faith is a gift from god... we must ask for it. We don’t just automatically have it when we are born. Faith is given to one that seeks for it and asks for it. I really want to see Ivan get baptized the 3rd of Sept. but he is feeling really pressured. He has made a lot of progress since the first time me met with him. He started off saying he didn’t even believe in god.... I have faith that he will get baptized here shortly. Today we are going to do a family home evening activity at Bishop`s house and Ivan is going! I hope this will help him get to know more members and feel more supported. I also did another companion exchange with Elder Childs from Kansas and it was awesome! That day we found 3 new investigators and had 4 lessons. He is like one of my best friends here in the mission. I’m not gonna lie... sometimes its stressful training a new missionary because they think they know EVERYTHING and they are always watching to see when you make a mistake haha. I love elder Santos though because I have to haha... he is my son. It’s amazing that we can learn from each other. It is possible that I might get transferred the 10th of Sept. so we have been working extra hard to find new people and set baptismal dates. I hope to see some of the fruits of my labors but if not... doesn’t matter. Anyway, things are going great here. It is super-hot here in Calama and super cold at night.... it is so weird. Anyway... gotta wrap things up... love you all and send me pictures!

Elder Spanbauer

FBI

PDay with my buddy Elder Childs

Week 75 Calama

Aug 15^th, 2016

Hey guys... I’m just gonna send some voice recordings this week because I’m in a big hurry. We had a BBQ today in the ward so that’s why I won’t be able to give you guys a huge update.

Love you all... Until next week!

Elder Spanbauer

Week 74 Calama

Aug 8, 2016

So I’m proud to say that this week was a lot better than the last. We were able to work more with the members and we set TWO baptismal dates! One with Ivàn Bustòn and the other with a guy named Juan Carlos Calpa. We had a pretty intense lesson with Ivàn and basically asked... Do you like going to church? Do you want to know these things are true? And he said yes.... so we said... GET BAPTIZED! hahaha obviously we didn’t say it like that but we said that we know he can get baptized the 3rd of Sept. if he truly works towards that goal. He accepted the date and went to church this Sunday! The ward is really starting to include him more and they invited him to a BBQ this coming week. Tonight we are also going to have a family home evening activity with him and a few members. It’s been a real challenge teaching him because of his condition but he is willing to try and change and he thinks it will be for the best. Juan Carlos Callpa is kind of a special case as well. He suffers from depression and his wife has been trying to get him baptized forever now... He is very hard headed and doesn’t like when people tell him what to do. The good news is that he has opened up more to us than he has with any other missionaries. We set his date for the 27th this month and I know he can be ready by then but he has to do his part. The sister missionaries finally got back from Antofagasta and so now we will be able to work more in our sector. I love Calama and the ward here is soooo awesome. The bishop is like my best friend and his son in law is probably the funniest guy I have ever met! Things are going well with me and Elder Santos... sometimes we argue but that’s normal when one is training. If something is bothering us we just tell each other straight up and we fix it right away to avoid losing the spirit. Elder Santos is a very good teacher and he’s gonna be a great missionary. Today we are going to go bowling as a zone again! Anyway... Love you all! Hasta la próxima semana!

Elder Spanbauer

Week 73 Calama

Aug 1, 2016

Hey guys! This was both a terrible and awesome week! It was bad because we had bad numbers but we baptized!!! Rafael Paucay got baptized Saturday and it was awesome! He was baptized by his dad that we helped reactivate! Now that his son is a member it will encourage the dad to keep going to church! To be honest... there isn’t too much to report. It wasn’t the most successful week. Here are the photos from the baptism! Sorry for the short email. Next week I’ll try to write more. 

To celebrate we went out and bought giant completos!

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