Week 22 Vallenar

Aug 11, 2015

Hey everybody! So this past week was really cool. So much happened I don’t know how I’m going to be able to cover it all. So the week started off pretty normal. We taught a few people and we were working like normal and then one day it rained like a ton! That’s right, it has rained yet again in the driest place in the world! It rained for a full day and we weren’t aloud to leave the pension that day. We spent the day inside listening to conference talks and then we ate lunch with a member. He had to come get us in his car because it was raining so much. We ate lunch with the Tapia family. They are by far the coolest family I’ve met in Chile haha. He is the one that has made us Cheeseburgers and stuff. We ate a really good pasta and then Elder Malan and I made brownies to share with them. They were disgusting haha! For some reason the brownie mix you can get here is terrible hahaha. They of course said they were good even though we could see in their faces they hated them. That’s one thing every missionary mom should send to there missionaries. A lot of brownie mixes hahaha. Jonathan Tapia accompanied us that night and we randomly knocked on a door and he knew the person! We now have a teaching appointment with them and Jonathan is going to go with us. The Lord truly does perform miracles. We also played some board games that day. I learned how to play a card game called "Magic". It is equivalent to like Pokémon hahaha. I’m such a nerd! Actually, My companion is haha. I won’t lie though, it was fun. We have been finding more and more people to teach. Elder Malan and I get along super well. We are basically best friends. So yesterday we had a Noche de Hogar with the Donoso family and it was a BBQ. I secretly planned it behind my companions back because today is actually his birthday. It was super awesome because the Elders from the other sector came as well and so did a few menos activo families. He had no idea that we were planning it until they brought out the cake and sang to him. It was super fun. We actually met a few new people to teach by doing it. Also, yesterday we had interviews with president Dalton again. It was super awesome and I learned a lot. He talked a lot about the atonement and how us as missionaries have to consecrate ourselves in order to experience miracles. If we are simply not exercising in the morning like we are supposed to, we are not fully giving ourselves to the lord. It was very strong. Elder Swett goes home soon like in a week and so does Elder Còmena. I have known them since I started the mission and it’s sad to see them leave. As far as today, we went shopping and don’t ask me why but I bought an old flashlight and the thing looks as if its from world war two or something. It says it was made in the US and its Authentic! I got it for like 9 bucks and I plan to take it to a pawn shop when I get back to see if its anything special hahaha. We have another Noche de Hogar tonight and I think we are going to do something with the Tapia family for Elder Malan’s birthday. Anyway, that’s about all for this week in Vallenar! I love you all and Hope all is well at home! Chao!

Elder Spanbauer

Chilean Recluse Spider

Elder Swett

Elder Malan and Holloway making BBQ

Left to Right - Elder Hunter, Me, Elder Malan, Elder Holloway

Elder Còmena

Week 21 Vallenar

Aug 3, 2015

This is my weekly update! This week was a pretty successful week I guess you could say. We had a lot of lessons with people as well as a super fun activity in the church. So we have been teaching a lady named Ingrid Vasquez. She just recently divorced her husband and has 3 kids. She is super receptive and we had a lesson with her that was awesome. She is really interested in going to church and reading the book of Mormon. She has real potential as well as her kids! All of her kids are above the age of 8. Her youngest is 10 and her oldest is 15. Honestly, she is ready to be baptized.... well at least as far as we know. She obviously needs to attend church 3 times first and listen to all of the lessons but I have a feeling she will be baptized in the future with her kids. The only problem that we see as of right now is that her X husband is super catholic.... and we aren’t even aloud to teach her when he’s home. This makes things complicated. We have to wait 2 weeks until we can teach her again. We have also been teaching Jonathan still. He went to the activity and his girlfriend went! They took us home after the activity and said they loved it! Just a quick run down of the activity... We had a Noche de Aviones... or night of airplanes. We instructed everyone at the beginning of the activity was that they needed to construct a paper airplane and get it to reach a certain point on the white board. Then we threw a bunch of distractions at them. We said they needed to make a poster with an airline brand and that they needed to present it and a bunch of other stuff. The main goal of the activity was to get their airplanes to hit the point on the white board. After they all tried to hit it at the end of the activity no one was able to do it. They spend all there time building the posters instead of building planes and practicing. We then told them in life, we all have a purpose but that there are tons of distractions in this world. It’s hard to focus on our main goal or purpose when we put our focus in other things. After we ate completos! It was a super successful activity! 40 people went! So we thought all was well with Jonathan and Roxana (his girlfriend) and yesterday we went over to their house to have a noche de pancakes! We made American pancakes! Then Jonathan started bringing up temples and started talking about temple ordinances. He had look up temple videos and stuff regarding sacred temple things. He was looking on a bad website that can destroy his faith. He is not in a good place right now.... he now has a lot of doubts. We explained to him that those things are sacred and we cannot be looking those things up. He started saying that he’s not so sure about this anymore. We are going to have another lesson with another member that can explain these things better but I’m pretty sure this could be a "do or die" lesson. We will see what happens. I have faith that all will be fine. On another note, we had an awesome BBQ today in our backyard and I ate Cow heart! It tasted gross but I did it! I have a video but it’s hard to send videos through email. Anyway, gotta go guys. I hope you enjoy the pictures! Chao!

Answers to Questions:

Honestly, I love receiving pictures as well and I kinda wish I had some pictures from high school to show people as well cuz people don’t believe I played soccer before the mission haha.

Language update: so my Spanish has been improving and I’ve been getting a lot more confident with it. I feel that I can teach just about anything in my own words so that’s good. I can understand most conversations if the person isn’t speaking a ton of slang.

Physically, I am good. There was one week where I ate terrible and I’m sure I gained a little weight but I’ve been watching more of what I eat now haha.

Companion: Elder Malan and I get along super well. We have very similar personalities and we haven’t argued yet haha. We are constantly laughing and having a good time. I’ll admit that it’s a lot tougher to speak Spanish all the time with a gringo companion but its been a nice break.

There is a shortage of water here in Vallenar so they have been cutting the water a lot. It’s kinda frustrating but its all good. We have plenty.

Anyway, I love you guys so much and you’re always in my prayers! Dad, do something fun with mom haha. Love you guys! 

Elder Spanbauer

Tracking

Elder Malan

Elder Malan's Best Double Chin

BBQ

Week 20 Vallenar

July 27, 2015

Hi guys! So this week was a good one! We taught a lot and had quite a bit of success! So our last Sunday was not so great because only 34 people showed up at church. That was the lowest amount I ever experienced here in Vallenar. This week however, we had 45 so its going back up and there was like 3 big families that were all sick so we should be having at least 55 people every week. Jonathan came to church for his 3rd time! We were surprised because we called him in the morning to remind him and he didn’t answer so we were a little worried that he wouldn’t show but he did! Honestly, I know Jonathan is going to be baptized but he simply needs to pick a date to get married first. He has every intent to marry his girlfriend but keeps telling us he wants to be economically well off. He also says he wants to go on some awesome honeymoon with his wife but we are trying to tell him that those things can always wait. We are really just waiting and trying to help him set a date to get married. Who knows, it could happen when I’m here or maybe not. We will just have to see. We have also been teaching an investigator named Maximiliano and his girlfriend is a less active member. The thing with him is that they live together.... and the girlfriend named Ivonne has a kid. He is super sick with something so that whenever he goes outside and gets cold..... he will get extremely sick. This complicates things because she won’t go to church without her son but he can’t go so really, she just can’t go right now. Maximiliano told us that he simply wont go without Ivonne so... yeah. We recently had a "Noche de Hogar" with them, which is the same thing as like family home evening. Elder Malan and I made a bunch of American Pancakes to eat with them. Then we shared a quick message with them after. Maximiliano has the desire to be baptized but simply needs to go to church and complete a few other small things first. We have been teaching other people too but they aren’t considered "progressing investigators" yet because they aren’t completing their compromismos. Also, we went to a member’s house this week. (La Familia Tapia) They are like my favorite family in the branch. The dad is a return missionary and they have two of the cutest little kids ever! haha Anyway, they invited us over to eat American Cheeseburgers! I know... my luck! haha The second time I’ve had cheeseburgers here only this time they were amazing! After we taught about the importance of parents in a family and like the responsibilities of the father and the mother in any family. Then Jonathan (The dad) sang us a song with his guitar that he wrote when he was in his mission (Argentina). It was such a cool song and he is an amazing singer. He then shared some amazing Mission experiences with us. We asked him and his wife to be "hermanadores" or "member friends" for our investigator Jonathan and his girlfriend and they accepted. Things just got real;) haha Anyway, that about sums up my week. It sounds like the family is doing well! Glad your back is feeling better dad. Regan, keep hanging out with your friends and enjoy your summer! Rylie, stay out of trouble and don’t be basic! Tori, Happy-freaking birthday Sis!!! Mom, I love you as always and the rest of you as well! Grandma, I hope all is well with you and Richard! I love you all so much! Until next week!

Elder Spanbauer ☺

Vallenar Church Members

Overlooking Vallenar

Elder Malan & Me on P-Day

Elder Malan & Elder Comena

Elder Malan, Elder Comena, and I on P-Day

P-Day Hike

Exploring Caves

Elder Malan

Week 19 Vallenar

July 21, 2015

Bueno, aun estamos en Vallenar. Mi nuevo compañero llegó el Martes la última semana. Nosotros hemos trabajado mucho esta semana. Estamos consados! jajaja pero estamos felices! Primero, el nombre de mi compañero es Elder Malan de California. El es super bakan! Somos buenos amigos todavia. El es super chistoso tambien. Asi que, tuvimos una buena semana! Enseñamos muchas veces y encontramos a muchas nuevas personas que tal vez esten interasadas. Vamos a ver. Tuvimos una charla con Jonathan y fue genial porque El esta listo para ser bautizado. Simplemente nesecita casarse. Entonces, vamos a ver que pasa con eso. El estaba super animado para su bautismo y ahora poco triste porque ya no sabia que nesecitaba ser casado primero. Vamos a trabajar muy duro con El para Animarse. El aún tiene el deseo pero nesecita fijar una fetcha de matrimonio. Tambien, tuvimos una lección con Maximiliano. La problema con El es que su pareja o polola (girlfriend) no quiere ir a la iglesia. Ella es super buena y ella es miembro todavia sin embargo El no es. Maximiliano no va a venir si ella no llega. Esta situación es super cumplicada. Estamos enseñando a otras personas pero no tengo mucho tiempo para explicar que pasó con cada uno de ellos. Hasta ahora, ellos estan progresando. Somos dedicados y vamos a encontrar a alguien y bautizarles.

Anyway, I’m gonna finish this in English cuz I don’t want my brain to explode hahaha. So Elder Zach Malan. He is such a cool companion! I loved Elder Leon, but I’m very happy with Elder Malan hahaha. His Spanish is soooo good. He is really good at talking to the people as well. It’s a little hard planning by myself but I’m doing it. Yesterday my entire zone traveled to Copiapo to have a conference with Elder Zeballos from the quorum of the 70! It was awesome and I understood like everything! There was like 50 missionaries there and I saw a couple buddies from the MTC! It was such a good experience. Also, after the conference, we had about to hours to wait until the bus arrived to take us back, so Elder Malan, Elder Swett, Elder Carreón and I hopped in a taxi and went to Tierra Amarilla. It was the first sector in the mission for Elder Malan. We went to go see his first mamita. When we got there, she opened the door and just started crying. Elder Malan almost crying... heck, I almost started crying. It was such a cool experience and I didn’t even know them! Elder Swett and Elder Carreón knew that family as well. Apparently, that family like changed Elder Malan in the mission. It was really cool. Then we hurried back to the bus station and arrived just as the bus was leaving. The whole zone was mad at Elder Swett cuz he is the Zone leader and he had all of the tickets haha but we made it!

Today, we went to the same place we went a while ago. The place with all of the trees and caves and stuff to have another BBQ. We had to do some pretty insane things to get there because the rain destroyed the path. We had a really good time. I will send some pictures. Anyway, That about sums up my week. I love you all so much and loved the pictures you sent! I’ll talk to you all next week! Chao!

Elder Spanbauer

Visiting Jilgaro

Log Ride

Cooking "Choripanes"

One of the few green areas in the Antofagasta Mission

Week 18 Vallenar

July 13, 2015

Hey everybody!!! How’s it going? So where do I start.... hmm, well... we had some success this week! We committed Jonathan to Baptism! He is set to have his baptism next month so we will see what happens there. We still have to work with him on a few things but he’s more than ready to be baptized. His testimony has grown soooo much since the first time we talked with him. Also, we met a lot of new people to teach this week. I’m finally comfortable leading all of the lessons and participating a lot in the lessons. It’s amazing to see how the spirit can work through us as missionaries. I would say the hardest thing to do here in Chile is to get the Chileans to commit to something haha. They will tell us one day that "Yeah! I’m going to go to church with you guys!" and the next day they will say, "Nah, I don’t want to". I would say that is the biggest problem we have here haha. We had the opportunity to work with a member se llama "Hermano Carriso". He is by far the coolest old man I’ve ever met. He is an old grandpa in the ward that has the strongest testimony in the world. He always works with us as missionaries and goes with us for like 4 hours to work. He will walk an hour just to deliver an invitation to a family. He is the kind of person I want to be when I’m an old man. So here is the big news.... Elder Leon is leaving me... :( He will be going to Iquique! My new companion will be a gringo! haha and his name is Elder Milan or something like that. I meet him tomorrow. I have to lead my sector now, which is kinda freaky but awesome as well. I’m excited but also really sad... >Oh!!! It rained like.... a ton last night... like the roads were like rivers of water! It was soooo sweet! So yah, for those of you that said it would never rain in my mission.... TOMA!!! hahahaha. Anyway, All is well here. I have to go with Elder Leon to the bus station so until next week! Love you all!!

Elder Spanbauer

Meet Emi, She is the cutest little girl in the world! hahaha

Fam. Dominguez

Rain!!!

Rare Rain Shower in Vallenar

 

Enjoying the Rain