Adios, Texas!

Hello!!

We've had a huge cold front come through Texas this week - it was colder here some days than it was in Salt Lake! We even had a little snow last night.

I don't have much to write about for this last email - I just wanted to share a quick story and my testimony!

As my last transfer came closer to the end, I felt a little sad that I wouldn't be able to see one more of my investigators get baptized before I got home. I still kept praying for it, hoping somehow a miracle would happen.

Well it did!!! My trainer texted me one night and told me someone we taught together in my first area was getting baptized.

I was able to watch the service for Alicia on Saturday and one of my converts from my first area was the one who presided the service.

IT WAS SO SPECIAL.

I really felt that God had answered my prayers so perfectly and so specifically. I'm so excited for Alicia and I feel like my whole mission in Argentina and Texas came full circle this weekend.

I know that God lives. Without a doubt, I know my Savior loves me and that He died for me. I truly know that God has a plan for my life and I can talk to Him through prayer - anytime I want!

I am so thankful for my mission. I can't thank all of you enough who have loved and supported me along the way, and I can't even begin to thank my Heavenly Father for this small time I've been able to work under His hand in His kingdom.

MISSIONARY WORK IS THE BEST. 

I will see you all soon!! I fly home Wednesday. My homecoming talk will be on February 28th, send me a message if you would like the zoom link :)

Nos vemos!!

Hermana Spackman

I'm Famous

 

Hello Everyone!!

So remember how last week I talked about our free piano lessons?

So throwback to last Tuesday, I get this message from someone on Facebook asking if she can give me a call. So we call her up and she's part of the local news station here and she asked if she could do a segment on us.

So my companion and I are like "yeah!!! Let's do it."

We text our mission pres and get permission and all that jazz and then the next day the news crew comes and they film 3 of our piano lessons.

Guys.

They posted the segment at 6 pm and by 6:10 pm I already had 10 new messages hahahah.

My phone was blowing up all night!!

Throughout the whole week people on the street recognized us from the news and would talk to us about it.

On Saturday we had our whole district help out because there were so many people that Sister Wheelwright and I didn't have time to do them all ourselves.

Now here's the cool part:

Last night, I get a message on Facebook from this lady. She said this: "Hello  Sorry for the random add. I saw your post on the Corpus Christi resources about piano lessons and noticed y’all are sister missionaries. I added you because my husband & I use to have y’all sisters come visit us at our house and well since this COVID stuff we‘ve lost touch with y’all sisters."

We messaged a little bit and set up a time to teach her and her husband.

GOD KNOWS HIS CHILDREN.

That post got enough comments and likes that this sweet lady would see it and be able to reconnect with missionaries again. It makes sense now why all of this had to happen.

SO COOL.

We had zone conference this week, it was my last one. Our mission president gave all of us who are going home the opportunity to share our testimonies at the end. As I shared my testimony and listened to the other missionaries I couldn't help but think about all the ways my testimony has grown since I've been on my mission. I have been so blessed, and my mission has sincerely changed me so much!

If you are thinking about serving a mission - PLEASE DO IT. You will never regret it. The blessings that are waiting for you are more than you can imagine. There are people who  need you!

Spiritual experiences:

So many this week!!

We called this guy from area book and when he answered he said "I just  barely got done praying that God would send me a new beginning, and then you called."

We felt prompted to change plans and call some moms in our area book. We called this lady, Andrea, and she said she had just been thinking about us the day before! She lost contact with missionaries and was so glad we called.

We found two people while contacting this week who asked us to teach them right there on the spot. Some people are just so prepared for the gospel!

Funny stories:

We called some guy and we asked what he was up to and he said smoking a lot of weed and then hung up.

We biked all the way to the church and the second we pulled in we got a call from the zone leaders asking us to bike back to the apartment so they could do a cleaning check hahah. Luckily, there were other missionaries there who let us drive their car - so I got to drive a truck hehehe :)

My companion got pooped on by a bird while we biked.

Going into my last full week as a missionary is a very surreal feeling. But, these past few days have been a really good time to reflect and think about all the things I have learned over this year and a half. I'm so grateful to have one more week to serve the Lord!

Love,

Sister Spackman

Piano Lessons :)

It was a good week!

This week we had exchanges with the STLs and I went with Sister McKee. We found people that we have not been able to get in contact with for more than 2 weeks.  It was great! We laughed a ton and she taught some cool bike tricks 

The other day I got a feeling that I should offer free piano lessons on some Facebook groups. I didn't want to, because I really didn't know how I could help someone learn piano and if it would be worth offering. But I did it because I felt like I really needed to, and within minutes I received over 15 messages from people asking for help.  There are now over 70 comments on the post. Next week we already have more than 14 appointments scheduled to teach people the piano!

We already had our first lessons on Saturday, and when people came into the chapel they said "Wow! How beautiful!"  I hope that we can plant some seeds that grow in people's hearts!

The STLS had a baptism this week, and we invited our friend, Eric, to come.  He came and loved it!!  He told us that he was having some doubts about his own baptism because of some Anti stuff he had read, but after watching the baptism and talking with us he wanted to continue with his baptism. He came to church yesterday too and we taught him the restoration with a returned missionary in our ward.  When we taught him about Joseph Smith he told us "I believe it!!"  He is so cool.

We also had an old investigator reach out to us and ask if we could come teach him again. We went over and taught him while he smoked a huge cigar hahah, then afterwards we asked him to prepare himself to be baptized and he said yes!! We are gonna work towards March 31st with him.

Funny experiences:

We were facebook finding when the zone leaders came in one night to use the computers with us. Well, being sister missionaries we get lots of weird messages on Facebook from old, creepy men  The elders started looking over our shoulders and  reading messages as we opened them and they started freaking out  it made me realize how weird messaging people on Facebook can be sometimes as a Sister missionary haha.

Spiritual experience:

As I come to the last few weeks of my mission I have been thinking a lot about the type of person I want to be when I get home, and the goals and plans I have for the future. I've been praying a lot to know what I should study at Utah State and for help with lots of other decisions I will have to make.

We had dinner with our relief society president last night and she drove us to her house, which is about a 15 minute drive. The entire time we just talked and she answered so many of my questions and things I have been worried about!! She was a direct answer to my prayer.

Have a good week everyone and remember that God loves you!!

Love,

Sister Spackman

Cheers to 21 Years

Birthdays on the mission are the best!! Today has honestly been the best day - we went and toured the USS Lexington (a WW2 aircraft) and got lunch and spent some time at the beach! It's been a super fun day.

This week was rough, but we made it hahahaha. Here's a little something I wrote to mission president about how this week went:

Our most progressing friend, Gilbert, called us out of the blue on Tuesday and told us that he no longer wanted to be baptized. We were in shock! We didn't know what happened.

Afterwards, we had to go to an appointment with a member and investigator at the chapel and on the way I fell off my bike and got all muddy and I was so mad haha. To make matters worse, when we got to the chapel the member was already there but our friend never came.

The next day we rushed out for another appointment after sitting in traffic for an hour, only to realize there was a thorn in the wheel of my bicycle. When we took it out, the tire deflated completely.

Then the next day, our second most progressing investigator and my favorite person ever, Hannah, dropped us. We had a lesson with a bible basher and at that point, I was so angry! I didn't understand why all of this had to happen in a week. I prayed and told God about how mad I was.

But, when I heard your comment in Come, Follow Me, I realized that this work is not about me.  It doesn't matter if our friends drop us, people flake out on appointments, or I face plant off my bike into the mud. The Lord's work goes on !!  And I can choose if I want to be part of it, or spend my time angry because things don't happen the way I want. God's plan is perfect and things will work out the way they are supposed to. Maybe God was teaching me this week to have a little more patience and trust in Him. He is refining me until the very last minute!

Hope that gives yall a little insight into the life of a missionary hahah!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes and emails! I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love I've received today. I love you all!

Love,

Sister Spackman

Ray of Sunshine

hey yall!!

It's been a good week! We went to the beach today, so I don't have a ton of time. I'll keep this one short!

Gilbert and Hannah are still doing well and progressing! We also picked up a few new people to teach.

Jared is a teenage boy and we taught him the story of Joseph Smith's first vision and he was so excited. He was like "God really speaks to people???" We were like "Yeah!!!" It was awesome to see how pumped he got.

Natasha is someone who we picked back up from being taught before. She is SO SWEET. She's been going through a lot of hard things and basically just called us and ranted about it all and we related it all back to Christ and His Atonement. It was amazing to just sit there and listen and watch her figure out how Christ can take her burden away.

Funny experiences:

We got swarmed by like 20 seagulls at the beach today and everyone around us was just taking pictures and videos. Then the seagulls started diving so we had to all get up and leave hahah.

Spiritual experiences:

We went to go visit some investigators in this apartment complex that's only for old people, and on the way out we decided to visit an old widow from our ward who lives there.

When we showed up she was so tired because she had made cookies for company, and then no one showed up. So we cleaned up her kitchen for her and made dinner and then sat and talked for a little bit. We shared a little message and as we left she told us we were her "rays of sunshine" that day.

It nearly made me cry!! I was so grateful the Spirit had led us to visit her and brighten her on a lonely day. I know God is aware of all of His children and won't ever leave us alone.

I can hardly believe I'm winding down to the last month of my mission. I'm grateful for all your emails, thoughts, and prayers that have kept me going throughout these past 17.5 months!

Love,

Sister Spackman

Here's my new address!

5757 S. Staples Street Apt 308 

Corpus Christi, TX 78413

Biking Beasts

This has been a wild week!!

To start off - I love Corpus!!! The ward here is AMAZING. The members are so welcoming and we have dinner at their houses each night. They help us with lessons and give us rides when it rains, and they invite the people we are teaching to sit with them at church! I have been shocked by the amount of kindness in this ward.

We live in a four man with the STLS, Sister McKee and Frandsen. I love them so much!! My companion, Sister Wheelwright, is so sweet. She is from Roosevelt, Utah and went to BYU Hawaii for a year before the mission! She also trains horses :)

Teaching in English is WEIRD. I have spoken Spanish with someone besides my companion maybe like 3 times this week, it's definitely different but it's kind of cool to see what the rest of Texas probably looks like! Everyone here has a southern accent and we meet a lot of people who are from Church Unlimited or Baptist.

The first 3 days here I was SO SORE from biking. We bike about 10-15 miles a day. I have only fallen off my bike once!! It's started to get fun though and we are able to meet a lot more people.

People we are teaching:

Gilbert!! He is so cool! We set a date for him to be baptized the first day I got here, and he came to church and sat with the members on Sunday. He is a little old man and sometimes can't hear us because we have to teach him outside haha, but he has a sweet heart and is so kind!

Hannah! She is our age and SO COOL. She graduated from college already and has a degree is psychology. She has a hard time having faith in God, so we have been working with her to grow that faith.

Spiritual experiences:

We went to go eat dinner with someone we are teaching the other night and it was pretty dark. Normally I just tie my safety vest onto my backpack, but I got a prompting that I should put it on instead.

As we were biking it was pretty dark and I noticed this big, white truck looked like he was about to turn in where I was crossing. I slowed down a little bit and then all the sudden he gunned it and almost hit me, I slammed on my brakes but I wasn't quite fast enough. Because I had my vest on, he saw me at the last second and slammed on his brakes.

I kept biking and was pretty shaken up, but I said a prayer of thanks because I know it was GOD, not my safety vest that protected me. I'm glad He gave me that feeling to put the vest on.

As always, there's a lot more I could write about, but hopefully that sums up generally what has been going on here in Corpus!! I'm excited for this transfer - lots of good things coming!

Love,

Sister Spackman

Pictures:

We visited Mr Bill's Christmas Wonderland and took pictures by the nativity. Then we got Bible bashed for 20 minutes and just stood there and said nothing #lovethesouth

Brother Aguirre made my dad's famous chili for our goodbye dinner!!

We went and said bye to the palleros and watched the restoration movie with them and our investigator, Paty.

Trunky Transferred

Hello!!

Well, my mission president sure has a sense of humor. I told him in my email last week how much I like being in a bike area on exchanges, but my legs hurt so bad after one day. Well, guess where he's sending me for my last transfer - a bike area hahaha.

I will be heading to Corpus Christi and end my mission in an English area! I'll be there with Sister Wheelwright. She has been out as long as my greenie, Sister Lund! Woot woot.

I am honestly terrified because I have heard Corpus is way diferent than Laredo and Brownsville and basically no one speaks Spanish there. My mission president also told me that area is really struggling right now. It will be different than anywhere I've ever served in Texas or Argentina, but I'm excited to see what it's like! Hopefully I can help pick up the work there a little bit!

It was a good last week here in Brownsville! I was able to say goodbye to some of my close friends/members here and made some good memories with them.

Some miracles that happened this week:

We found a bunch of new families to teach!! We taught a group of little kids at least once a day.

Some guy told us that he was super sick and then he started reading the Restoration pamphlet we gave him and when he read about Joseph smith he was immediately cured and now he wants to join our church hahah. MILAGROS!

the members taught paty about how to study the BOM and she loved it and is progressing towards baptism!

We taught a guy in ASL and I was able to use the little sign language I know and I understood a lot of what he was saying!

Jezias wants to be baptized! He is on date for February 13th!!

We found a group of all these 20 year old guys to teach and were having a super dope conversation about God with them and then their mom invited us in for pizza and mexican hot chocolate and we were able to teach their whole family!

Funny things:

I ate octopus for the first time, two days in a row.

Sister hall ran our car into a fence

We went to the Palleros (my all time fav members) for New Years and did latin dancing and the cha cha slide hahaha. It was a good time.

That's about all I have for this week!! Thank you for all your love and support!

Love,

Hermana Spackman