Week 30 ~ Transfers

Hi Everyone!!

This week has been super crazy and I only have time to send this one email today. I'll explain more next week, but I'm doing okay! We had emergency transfers after our transfers last week and I switched companions again. I am with Hermana Andersen from Gilbert, Arizona now. She is super sweet and we're excited to work together. She has only 6 weeks less than me in the mission, so wish us luck with our Spanish, haha!!

This week Elder Bragg from the 70 is coming to our mission and I will be playing the piano for the conference. I'm super nervous but grateful for the chance to play for him!

Thank you for all your love and prayers. 

Love,

Hermana Spackman

pictures from transfers with some of my friends in the mission!

Week 29 ~ Carlos and his Pigs

Hello Friends and Family!!

This week seemed to go by so quickly. Tomorrow we have transfers and my companion is leaving the area and I will be staying! It has been sad to see my companion say goodbye to people after spending nearly 5 months here in this little pueblo, but it has been humbling to see how close we have become to many of the sweet people here. I am nervous to lead the area this next transfer, but I know the Lord is right here beside me and will help me along the way!

Truly not much happened this week. We are chugging along with our investigators and the less active members here in our area. There are about 25 people who go to church each week, and over 500 less active members here in Dorrego. We have been working through the lists that we have to try and find each one of them and help them come back to church.

Spiritual experience:

In divisions we found this lady who talked all about how she loves President Nelson and the church, but she is Catholic. Come to find out, her daughter is a member!! My companion and I had been hoping to be able to meet the family of her daughter, and this last week her husband came to church! He pulled us aside and shared with us that he was in town because his father in law had recently passed away, just after we had visited. He shared many things with us but he asked us to please keep meeting with his mother in law because he thinks she is ready to accept the gospel. It was a really tender moment for me, because I had had the exact same impression when I met her and this son-in-law had so much hope in us to be able to share the gospel with her.

Funny experiences:

I wish I could really describe Dorrego accurately to all of you, but all that I can say is that it is literally the craziest little pueblo hahah. So many weird things happen here on the daily, and there are so many animals!! We met Carlos a few weeks ago and he has been showing us all around his pig farm. I`ll attach pictures below.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I have felt the Savior helping me along the way so much these past few months. I know He loves us and that He lives!

Love,

Hermana Spackman

Week 28 ~ Jehovah Witnesses and Birds & Bees Guy

Hello Everyone!

This week was a lot more calm than last week! We spent a lot of the days walking and knocking doors, but we were able to find 14 new people who agreed to return appointments for us to teach them. It's the little miracles that make the mission so worth it.

We have been teaching Roberta for quite some time now, but she is also receiving literally every other religion under heaven hahah. The Jehovah's Witnesses visit her a lot, and so a lot of the doctrine we teach her gets really confused. BUT, last week we went to visit her and she wasn't home. We were super bummed but then her son was like ¨Do you guys want to read the Book of Mormon with me?¨ Uh, yeah!!! We spent about an hour talking with him and he told us that he wants to come to church with us and be baptized in the future. We are so pumped to keep teaching him, and hopefully he can help his mom to come along as well!

Funny experiences:

A few weeks ago I wrote about this old guy who started talking the Birds and the Bees in the middle of our lesson. This week we got a call from one of the members, and she let us know she is going out with someone!! (She is 84 years old, but that's not stoppin her) and come to find out, it is the Birds and the Bees guy hahah!! But, he wants to come to church because she told him she won't marry him unless he gets baptized HAHA. So we will see how that goes.

I have never come to love the United States as much as I have on my mission. I have this weird habit of singing the national anthem whenever I'm bored or doing something, and yesterday OUT of NOWHERE my companion just busts out singing the first line in broken English HAHA! We both died laughing.

That's about all I have for this week! We are coming up on transfers this next week and I think I will be staying in my area, but we are really happy for all the progress we have seen here in Dorrego so far. I love this little town!

Love,

Hermana Spackman

Week 27 ~ Tender Mercies

Family and Friends!!

This week was awesome!! I hope you can all forgive me for this long email I am about to write! This past week I passed 6 months in the mission, and the time has gone by so fast I can hardly believe it. Every month seems to go by a little bit quicker. We saw so many miracles and had a lot of really good things happen in our area this week. My companion and I put a goal to work together on recognizing the small tender mercies of each day, and we saw lots of them!

This week we had district meeting and interviews with our mission president. I literally bring a notebook to each interview with him, because I learn so much. This week especially. As I was sharing the challenges that we face in our area and some of the things that we have been going through here in this little pueblo, he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "Hermana Spackman I have no words, but I know the Lord is happy for your efforts. All I can say is that we do hard things. Keep going." It was exactly what I needed, in the moment I needed. I really know that our mission president is called of God and is exactly who we need in our mission.

I wanted to quickly share two little tender mercies that we had this week:

On Wednesday we had divisions and I always get so excited for divisions because we see lots of miracles each time. This time was no different, we were able to find 7 new people to teach!! And 3 of them had met with missionaries before and loved what they had learned and wanted us to continue teaching them. It was seriously so cool. We are excited to teach them in the coming week.

Saturday night I came home super sick and spent the whole night throwing up and Sunday morning as well. We weren't able to go to church because of how sick I was. After church, the bishop came and gave me a priesthood blessing and within 6 hours I was feeling better and could finally drink water again. The bishop also told us that we had two less active members in church!! It was so cool to me to see how the Lord blesses us for our efforts, and he works through his worthy priesthood holders.

Spiritual experience:

On Tuesday we had our whole day planned out, but I felt very strongly during my personal study that we should visit two people in particular, that lived very far from our plans for that day. I told my companion about it and she said that we should follow the prompting. On our way to meet with these two people, we found Raul and Chuli. They are the parents of an old contact, and they invited us in to talk. We taught them the whole first lesson and part of the second, and they asked us to come back!! They seemed so excited and asked so many questions. Then after we met them, we were able to find 2 more investigators on our way to visit the people I felt prompted to visit. When we ended the night we felt really blessed by how the Spirit had guided us the whole day through, and we gained 4 new investigators because of it!!

Funny experiences:

This week we taught half a lesson in Portuguese and half in Spanish!! It was hard for me to follow the Portuguese at first, but after about 20 minutes I could understand and follow the entire conversations haha!

On Monday night we stayed with some hermanas in Bahia Blanca and all the lights went out in the city for about an hour so we sat in the dark and told stories haha it was one of the highlights of my mission!

Thank you for your continued prayers and support! Each week of the mission I am coming to love it more and more.

Love,

Hermana Spackman

pics

birthday cake!!

pics with my two last companions, who are now companions!

4 hermanas waiting for a bus hahah