Week 48 ~ 100 Days of Quarantine

Hello!!

This week was very busy! We taught over 40 lessons, which is the most we have had since I've been here. We are meeting sooo many people on facebook, the problem is keeping in contact with them haha. Sometimes it's really hard to keep a conversation going over text about gospel topics.

This week started out a little rough because of some crazy stuff that happened with investigators, but it ended up really good. 

Our dude, Roy came to church!!! He is awesome and so prepared for the gospel. I asked him if he had ever come before and he said "No, I've been invited multiple times to both wards and never went. When you reached out I just felt like it was my time." SO COOL!!! AH! Anyways, so yeah he's awesome. He is reading the Book of Mormon and progressing and wants to share it with his mom :,) We love Roy!!

On Tuesday I did a training for our district on how to have faith and hope in missionary work, while still being realistic. I have realized that is something that is key in missionary work!! The thing that has helped me the most is to realize that God has a plan for each person I meet. Not everyone will accept the gospel that we teach it to, and that's okay. That is still part of the plan. And when things do go right - that's part of His plan, too! And I should always thank Him for it.

Funny experiences:

We made the DUMBEST video this week, but it actually turned out pretty funny. I don't want to send it in my group email because it's embarrassing, but if you want to see it, send me a message and I will share it with you privately, hahaha.

My comp went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and didnt see the door and slammed her face into the door and then peed her pants. HAHAH it was so funny, but I felt kinda bad.

Spiritual experiences:

This week in entirety has honestly been like a spiritual highlight of my mission. There's lots of cool things that have happened, but all in all I've just learned of the Lord's personal awareness for each one of His children. He loves and knows us.

This week our mission hit 100 days of quarantine!! If you are one of those missionaries out there who has been in quarantine this whole time, a big S/O to you. 

Have a great week y'all! Drink lots of water and stay hydrated with that July weather coming on. :)

Love,

Hermana Spackman 

Week 47 ~ The Triple R Combo

Hey y'all!

This week was so great!!! We found lots of new people to teach. I've really been focusing on trying to be more genuine when talking to people and make real connections - and I've seen such a difference. Before I would sometimes catch myself trying to just relate everything to the gospel so I can say I taught a lesson for the day, but I've found that when the conversation is natural, the gospel principles come easily. I've felt a deeper connection to my investigators and it's made teaching a lot more fun. 

This week we found a cute Mexican ice cream shop & a garden that had the cutest white and pink birds. Then we did a bike ride around the canal and found a wild pig family hahaha. It was Hermana Christofferson's one year in the mission so we rode our bikes four miles to the store and back to surprise her with balloons and a bundt cake. Then we celebrated big with a Ruby's steakhouse feast for dinner.

I truly do love it here. My companion is such a Christlike example and she makes me want to be better every day. I've been blown away at her spiritual maturity and I know it was Heavenly Father's plan we were put together. I've been lucky to have such awesome companions my whole mission. We laugh all the time and even when the days are rough, we have a good time together. I've realized it's important it is to just be able to laugh it off when things don't go your way and be able to move on quickly.

 When I first got reassigned to this mission I was so nervous to have to make new friends and learn a new mission all over again, but I have truly come to love it so much and enjoy my time here. I didn't think I would love it as much as I loved Argentina, but I've been happily surprised. 

Funny experiences:

Friday night we were all talking about our standards for who we wanted to date when we got home and Hermana C said "He's gotta be the triple R combo. Rich, righteous and ripped." We all just died laughing at that. 

 

Elder Uchtdorf asked our mission to have everyone send in a video of us singing a solo to "Go Forward With Faith". We all were practicing in the house and it was so EMBARRASSING hahahah. I finally filmed it and sent it in & felt so grateful that I kept all my junior high singing videos unreleased to the public. I am a terrible singer hahahahah.

While I was doing that, the sisters were in another room and they made up a song about chickfila & it was sooo trunky & funny. Might make summer 2020 top hits. Here's the lyrics to my favorite verse:

Like waffle fries, with nuggets on the side

You got that sparkle in your eye

Please hold me tight

Cause you're my chickfila 

Spiritual experience:

This Sunday we watched the missionary devotional and I just kept replaying it throughout the week - it was so good! One thing I loved is he talked about changing our intentions when we do things. I feel like there's a lot of times where in missionary work, we do things just to be able to check off a box or say we did it. But its SO important to do it for the love of God, and our neighbors. I think that's something a lot of us can do better at.

I hope you all have a great week & all those Fathers out there had a good fathers day. I'm so grateful for my dad and all he's taught me - I probably wouldn't be out here in Texas on my mission without his help and guidance! 

Love,

Hermana Spackman

Week 46 - Back At It

Hey Everyone!!

This week was awesome. I think I forgot how much I love to be a missionary, until I was actually back out in the field again. Facebook finding - so cool!!! We just stalk people all day and then slide into their DMs and try to get them to let us share a lesson with them hahaha. It's not easy, but it's super fun to talk to random people all day. I have had some of the weirdest conversations of my life.

On Monday I got to the airport and Sister Marshall was there!! We're friends from the MTC and we both served in Argentina, and now we ended up in the same mission! We talked all day and it was so fun to catch up with her.

My mission president is awesome, I'm excited to get to know him better. My companion's name is Sister Collins and she is from Virginia! She was in the MTC for only two weeks and then got transferred straight out to the mission - she is an absolute legend. She just hit 3 months and she is already killing it. This is her first Spanish area, so I've been teaching her lots and lots of Spanish. She is a beast.

We are whitewashing!!! We've never done that before, so I was super nervous but it has actually been so fun. We've had lots of lessons and met some really amazing people.

Texas!!!! I LOVE IT HERE. It is seriously so hot and humid, but we barely go outside so it hasn't killed us yet. Tex-Mex is such a real thing! We are serving in Laredo, and we are about 5 minutes from the border! We meet so many people that speak Spanish everyday, at first it was hard because I felt like I forgot everything - but it has all quickly come back.

Serving stateside is so bougie, you guys. We have a car, our apartment is huge, a chick-fil-a 5 minutes away, and a hot shower that actually works and smartphones! Also, self-referrals are like actually a thing here?? And the members are so awesome. They've brought us dinner every night, even during quarantine. And one member showed up with half a cheesecake that she just happened to have left-over. I feel a little bit like I'm on vacation. 

We're living with two other sisters right now and it makes for some funny times. Also one of the sisters is Elder Christofferson's great-niece and she just casually called him "Uncle Todd" and we all started laughing. We've spent a lot of time doing that over the past week hahaha.

We have some really cool investigators, but honestly we don't know them super well yet so I will probably write more about them next week. We are teaching a guy named Alejandro and he is AWESOME. He has such a desire to learn more and a killer knowledge of the Bible. We're excited to teach him this upcoming week.

Spiritual experience:

We were allowed to go back to church on Sunday and it was so AWESOME. It was the biggest ward I've been in in nearly a year and I realized how much I had taken for granted my ward back home. I think it's really easy to take what we have for granted until we have it taken away.

Funny experiences:

We went to drop off a Book of Mormon to someone who requested one and this big pitbull came up and started barking at me and my companion. My comp was super scared but I just like started laughing and shooed it away. I realized I've spent a little too much time with the dogs in Argentina hahaha

I'm always trying to set my roommates up with my friends from back home and on Sunday we played apples to apples as a zone and for the question they said "if hermana collins and hermana spackman were stuck on an island, what would they take with them?" And hna christofferson who lives with us answered "hna spackman's endless supply of boyfriends" in the group chat with our entire zone  everyone roasted me after that and I don't think I'll ever live it down.

Well that's about all I have for this week!! Hope you all have a great one, and make sure to do some service for someone this week :)

Love,

Hermana Spackman

Pics are of some quality dms I got this week <333