Week 72 Calama

July 25, 2016

Hey!!! I have to make this really fast because today we spent all day in San Pedro de Atacama. It is a very well-known city out in the middle of the desert. We left at 4am to get there by 6am and we just got back. This week was really good. We have had very good numbers and have been working a ton with members. There is a member named Fabian Lazo that leaves on his mission in like a week so he always leaves and works with us to get some practice. Rafael, (the 11-year-old boy that is getting baptized) passed his baptismal interview! Now we just have to organize the baptism and all that. The two sister missionaries in my district/ward left to Antofagasta because one of them has a really bad knee so we have not only been working in our sector... but their sector as well. We are trying to find new investigators because some of the investigators that we have don’t progress much. The Chinese man, Ken Feng... is progressing well! He is reading every day in the book of Mormon! He speaks a very broken Spanish but we can understand him. He is super funny hahaha. Anyway, I wish I could tell you more but we have to get back to the house and leave to go work. Here are some pictures! Love you all! 

Elder Spanbauer

Elder Oakey and Elder Childs and Me

Valle de la luna

Elder Oakey and Elder Childs reenacting the lion king hahaha

Video of me Sandboarding! Haha

 

Week 71 Calama

July 18, 2016

Hey everyone!!! Hay bautismo!!! haha we will be having a baptism the 30th of this month! He is an 11-year-old boy that wants to be baptized by his father. His dad is less active so we are reactivating him and baptizing his son at the same time! So we have been working a ton with the members here and we have been seeing many good results. The lame part is that most people are out of town around this time of year so it’s really hard to find people. We have a new investigator named Blanca from Peru. She is super awesome and we have taught here the restoration and the plan of salvation. She is really receptive and we plan on setting a baptismal date with her soon. The problem is that she is pregnant and might be moving to Peru soon. We have been teaching this Chinese guy named Ken Feng. He owns a Chinese food restaurant and gives us free food all the time hahaha. He is reading the book of Mormon in Chinese and is already in Jacob! If we can get him to get married, his (future wife) can get baptized and he would get baptized as well obviously. His (future wife.. Rosa) is an investigator of the sister missionaries in my ward so we are working together to help them get married and eventually baptized. I had the opportunity to do an intercambio with Elder Oakey, one of my zone leaders. It was awesome because I started the mission with him in Vallenar but we never had the opportunity to do one there. We taught several people and it’s always fun being with another gringo haha. So something crazy that happened this week!... I lost my camera..... and then I found it! I had my camera with me one day and it fell out of my bag while we were working. I realized towards the end of the day and I freaked out because I had a lot of photos on it that I hadn’t yet saved to my hardrive. We retraced our steps and had no luck. Before bed that night when I said my personal prayer... I prayed that It would show up somehow and literally as soon as we woke up, we received a call from an unknown number saying that they found my camera! Some guy found it and went through the photos and then posted one of them on Facebook asking if anyone knew me and a member from another ward saw it and long story short... we got the direction of the guy and we went to his house and I got it back! Prayer is a very powerful thing hahaha. Below are some photos I took this week. Enjoy! Love you all!

My buddy Ken Feng

Looking for a referral haha!!!

My Son turned 24!!! Celebrating with Bishop

Week 70 Calama

July 11, 2016

Hey everyone! This week was a lot better than the last. We have had several lessons and not just lessons... but lessons with members present. Last Friday, we did divisions and I went to two appointments with a member named Javier. Elder Santos worked with a member named Fabian. We managed to have a lesson with Ivan again and I had to teach him the law of chastity basically by myself because I was with Javier. It was a little uncomfortable but we had to teach it at one point or another. We asked him how he felt about it and he said he wanted to think about it a little more. The good news is that he went to church this week. This week we had 4 investigators at church! Later today we have an appointment with a 10-year-old boy named Rafael that wants to get baptized! At this point we don’t have anyone with a specific baptismal date but we plan on setting some this week. We have been working a lot with them members to get references. Today was the first time in my entire mission that I got to play soccer! We got together as a zone this morning and played soccer. The lame part is that only the sister missionaries can make the goals but it was still fun and I was still able to show off my skills;) This week really wasn’t that eventful.... I will try to write more next week, we have to go buy our food for the week. Love you all!! 

Elder Spanbauer

We Went Bowling Today!

Week 69 Calama

July 5^th, 2016

Alright, I will be honest... this last week started off extremely slow. The first 3 days we were really struggling. We didn’t teach a single lesson to an investigator those 3 days. We walked and walked and walked. We began to start visiting more members because it’s better to teach someone right? We are starting to teach the members and remind them more than anything of what their responsibilities are as members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. It is to find people to teach! Missionaries are fulltime teachers... not fulltime finders! The members are those that should be finding new people to teach. I feel that members just don’t really understand this principle fully. We had one day where we taught an old investigator that was in our area book and her name is Jakelyn. We showed up to her house with a member and she told right away that her father had just passed away. We shared the plan of salvation with her and she broke down into tears. We invited her to be baptized and she said that when she comes to know that these things are true, she will get baptized. After that we visited a family from Peru. (The Paucay family) We shared a basic principle of the gospel with them and then invited them to look for people for us to teach. They then told us that they have a grandson that had recently expressed to them that he wants to be baptized. He is 10 years old and we have an appointment with them on Thursday. We are beginning to see success as we ask for references from the members. I encourage you all to think of someone that could use the gospel in their lives (even though EVERYONE needs it). Just start by thinking of one person and then talk with the missionaries in the ward to organize some sort of plan to teach them. You can invite them to a family home evening or whatever but just do it! It’s time we start working with the missionaries instead of just watching and cheering from a distance. This Sunday, 3 of the 8 investigators that we invited to church showed up! We are teaching a man named Juan Carlos and he is passing through some problems right now. He is jobless and he needs our help with some doubts he has and everything but he came to church and he showing a lot of interest. Yesterday we were in Antofagasta as a zone to meet the new mission president and his wife. He is a lot different than President Dalton. He is going to let us play soccer but he says we can only play if the sister missionaries are playing with us. President Dalton didn’t even let us talk to the sister missionaries.... So it’s going to take a little bit of getting used to. President Ferreira is a very loving and funny guy. His wife is awesome as well! We also had our first interviews with President yesterday and it was a cool experience. He told me how much he loved me and how much he trusts in me to help Elder Santos in his training. He said "make this Elder fly" and that is exactly what I am going to do. Elder Santos is a very sensitive guy and very sincere. When I hear him pray I know without a doubt that he is conversing with his heavenly father. He has taught me a lot and I have only been with him for 2 weeks! Sometimes I ask myself... Who is the real trainer here? haha. I absolutely love this work and I love my heavenly father. There truly is no place I would rather be. I encourage you all to do more with the missionaries. Thank you for all you do and for your support. You are all in my prayers and until next week!

Elder Spanbauer

Sorry guys, I don’t have any photos this week but I will try to take some this week!

Here are a few more pictures from Kermitt's baptism.

Holding my baby boy!

My District

Week 68 Calama

June 27, 2016

So as you all know, I am now training a new Elder named Elder Santos! He is from.... (drum roll)..... Mexico! haha my beloved son is Mexican! hahaha. This week was pretty crazy. The first couple days I worked with the zone leaders because I was companionless. On Wednesday at about 5:30am I left to Antofagasta by myself to meet my son. I arrived to Antofagasta and had to walk to the mission office by myself!!! I have never felt so alone and scared in my life haha. We were in the mission all day with the newbies and I have been assigned to train Elder Santos. I am super excited because training is a very tough thing to do and one of the most important callings one can receive. President basically told us that the salvation of these new missionaries is in our hands. No pressure haha! We worked with a lot of members this week because I want Elder Santos to meet everyone. Ivan is doing good and Katia and Carlos are both doing fine as well. I have had a very sore throat this week and I lost my voice so I have been teaching everyone by whispering haha. Yesterday we were trying to sleep but the whole city was roaring because of the game. We kind of knew that Chile won because of all the noise we heard outside. Now I can rub it in everyones face! Take that Argentina! Anyway, there really isn’t much more to report because we only worked in our sector for a couple of days this week. Next week on the 4th of July, the whole zone of Calama is going to travel to Antofagasta to meet the new mission president. I will try to write more next week. Here are some photos!

(I am still trying to get the photos of Kermit´s baptism)

Elder Spanbauer

My Son Elder Santos from Mexico

Ping Pong Fury

Elder Santos

Elder Morales just sent these to me. Here are some photos from Kermit´s Baptism! I forgot to tell you guys but two days ago Kermit came to Calama and was in our bishop’s house. Bishop called me and told me to go to his house right away so I did. I got there and Kermit was there! I got to talk to him for a while and he was super happy. He told me how he was going to talk to President Dalton to see if I could travel to Antofagasta to see his baptism hahaha. It was really cool that I got to see him again. Anyway, gotta go... see ya later dad. Love ya!

Elder Spanbauer

 

Kermit's Baptism!

Week 67 Calama

June 20, 2016

Alright... so this was an extremely good week. This week started off really bad. We weren’t able to find a member that could leave and work with us. We didn’t have a single lesson Monday or Tuesday but by Wednesday things started to change a little. We were able to work with members and have more lessons. We taught Ivan this week and we had a member come with us. It was a very interesting lesson because he came out and told us he is gay.... I honestly didn’t know what to say.... Its not something he is really proud of but he still doesn’t see it as a sin. We explained to him that if he acts on those feelings it becomes a sin, but if he doesn’t act on those feelings it is not a sin. Now whether someone is born with it or not... I have no idea but he is still very interested in learning about the church. At first I kind of lost hope of him getting baptized but I honestly can still see him getting baptized. This Sunday he came to church for the second time! He already knows several members now and they are starting to include him more. We also were able to teach Katia. (The woman that stopped us in the car) We taught here and her husband and they are both really awesome. He says that he doesn’t really know if god exists but I’m sure that if he comes to church he will receive his testimony. I am going to try and organize a family home evening in the house of our bishop with their family. Alright, for the big news... This last Saturday KERMIT GOT BAPTIZED!!! You asked for the update on him and here it is! My bishop here in Calama (his brother in law) was able to go to Antofagasta and baptize him! It was Elder Morales`s last Saturday in the office and he was able to see the baptism. I feel so good to know that I was able to help Kermit while I was serving in the office. Many times... more often than not we don’t get to see the fruits of our labors until later. I will be sending photos of his baptism next week. Bishop still has to give them to me. Alright, for the other big news.... Elder Bravo left today and I will be getting a new companion. I am still district leader and I will be training next transfer!!!! I find out who my beloved son is this Wednesday!!!! I’m so excited to train and finally have my own posterity here in the mission hahahaha. Oh, I also had another baptismal interview with an investigator of the elders in my district. Her name is Jasna. She is about 40 years old and she has gone through a lot to get to baptized. She got married last week and this week her husband`s dad passed away. She passed the interview and is completely ready to be baptized. Things are going great here in Caspana and I can’t wait to meet my kid. Love you all and here are some photos!

CALAMA

Elder Bravo and Elder Spanbauer

Elder Bravo

Elder Pereira, Elder Reveco, Elder Bravo

Week 66 Calama

June 13, 2016

So this was week was pretty good. It didn’t start off so well but it ended really well. This week we had our last zone conference with President Dalton. It was a very a very spiritual conference and I really liked how he ended it with a testimony meeting. President Dalton has taught me so much and I consider him a very big role model in my life. This week I also had the opportunity to do a baptismal interview for on of the investigators of the sister missionaries in my ward. She is a 10-year-old girl named Lyn. I was kind of nervous but everything went well. She knew everything and I didn’t have to explain the law of chastity to her so that was good hahaha. It was a pretty spiritual experience for me to see such a young child preparing to enter into the waters of baptism. I have another interview tomorrow with an investigator of the other elders in my district! We found some new investigators this week and had some awesome lessons with them. Yesterday we had stake conference and the investigator that Elder Childs and I taught in English showed up! We called him and invited him the night before and he came! He really enjoyed it and he got to know a bunch of members. Tonight we have a lesson with the lady that stopped us in her car the other day wanting us to teach her family. We have everything organized and even have a member that is going to work with us. Its gonna be awesome! Anyway, sorry this one is short... we played volleyball for like 3 hours today so next week I will try to add some more details. I love you all and until next week!

Elder Spanbauer

We got to see the game of Chile vs. Bolivia